Soft Start Seen For Malaysia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market headed south again on Monday, one session after ending the two-day slide in which it had slipped more than 8 points or 0.6 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just shy of the 1,450-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to lower, ahead of key data and an OPEC meeting later this week. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The KLCI finished modestly lower on Monday as losses from the telecoms and financials were offset by support from the plantations.

For the day, the index lost 5.77 points or 0.40 percent to finish at 1,448.15 after trading between 1,448.00 and 1,455.78.

Among the actives, Axiata slumped 0.84 percent, while Celcomdigi declined 1.20 percent, Dialog Group skidded 0.96 percent, Genting rallied 1.55 percent, Genting Malaysia jumped 1.89 percent, IOI Corporation tumbled 1.25 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong advanced 0.56 percent, Maxis sank 0.50 percent, Maybank shed 0.33 percent, MRDIY retreated 1.23 percent, Petronas Chemicals plummeted 2.88 percent, PPB Group eased 0.14 percent, Press Metal fell 0.20 percent, Public Bank lost 0.24 percent, RHB Capital dropped 0.54 percent, Sime Darby added 0.42 percent, Sime Darby Plantations surged 2.30 percent, Telekom Malaysia rose 0.19 percent, Tenaga Nasional plunged 1.60 percent, Westports Holdings tanked 1.42 percent and MISC, IHH Healthcare, CIMB Group and Petronas Gas were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Monday, improved midday but then stumbled into the close.

The Dow dropped 56.68 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 35,333.47, while the NASDAQ eased 9.83 points or 0.07 percent to close at 14,241.02 and the S&P 500 fell 8.91 points or 0.20 percent to end at 4,550.43.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of some key economic data in the coming days.

Traders also were looking for additional clues about the outlook for interest rates, with optimism the Fed is done raising rates contributing to recent strength on Wall Street.

In economic news, the Commerce Department said new home sales in U.S. pulled back sharply in October after surging in September.

Crude Oil prices fell on Monday with traders speculating on the likely outcome of Thursday's OPEC meeting to discuss production cuts. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for January fell $0.68 or 0.9 percent at $74.86 a barrel.