Renewed Selling Pressure Likely For Malaysia Shares

(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last five trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had slipped almost 6 points or 0.4 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just beneath the 1,460-point plateau although it figures to turn lower again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on renewed concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KLCI finished modestly higher on Friday following mixed performances from the financial shares, plantation stocks and telecoms.

For the day, the index gained 9.45 points or 0.65 percent to finish at the daily high of 1,459.03 after moving as low as 1,448.75.

Among the actives, Axiata gained 0.40 percent, while Celcomdigi stumbled 1.34 percent, CIMB Group rallied 1.58 percent, Dialog Group advanced 0.92 percent, Genting fell 0.24 percent, Genting Malaysia lost 0.40 percent, IHH Healthcare rose 0.34 percent, IOI Corporation plummeted 7.84 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong skyrocketed 7.37 percent, Maxis plunged 2.83 percent, Maybank added 0.79 percent, MISC was up 0.28 percent, MRDIY spiked 2.68 percent, Petronas Chemicals soared 3.63 percent, PPB Group sank 0.50 percent, Press Metal climbed 1.39 percent, Public Bank collected 0.48 percent, RHB Capital retreated 1.23 percent, Sime Darby tumbled 1.38 percent, Sime Darby Plantations surged 4.09 percent, Tenaga Nasional improved 0.90 percent, Westports Holdings jumped 1.86 percent and Telekom Malaysia was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Friday and worsened as the day progressed, ending near session lows.

The Dow tumbled 288.86 points or 0.83 percent to finish at 34,618.86, while the NASDAQ plunged 217.76 points or 1.56 percent to close at 13,708.33 and the S&P 500 sank 54.78 points or 1.22 percent to end at 4,450.32.

For the week, the Dow rose 0.1 percent, the NASDAQ fell 0.4 percent and the S&P dipped 0.2 percent.

The pullback on Wall Street reflected profit taking ahead of this week's Federal Reserve meeting. The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged this week, but the latest batch of U.S. economic data reignited concerns about the possibility of future rate hikes.

The Labor Department said on Friday that import and export prices rose significantly more than expected, while the New York Fed noted a big jump in New York manufacturing activity this month - all of which bode ill for the outlook for interest rates.

Oil prices climbed higher on Friday, rising on optimism over the outlook for Chinese demand after reports showed Chinese refiners broke refining rate records in August. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by $0.61 or 0.7 percent at $90.77 a barrel.