Mild Upside Seen For Malaysia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market on Friday snapped the two-day slide in which it had dropped more than 20 points or 1.4 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just above the 1,505-point plateau and it may inch higher again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat thanks to ongoing tariff concerns. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were barely higher, and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The KLCI finished barely higher on Friday following losses from the telecoms and mixed performances from the financial shares and industrials.

For the day, the index perked 1.29 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 1,505.45 after trading between 1,503.71 and 1,513.23.

Among the actives, 99 Speed Mart Retail and Sime Darby both sank 0.51 percent, while Axiata plummeted 4.47 percent, Celcomdigi plunged 3.20 percent, CIMB Group added 0.74 percent, Gamuda gained 0.51 percent, IHH Healthcare jumped 1.92 percent, IOI Corporation fell 0.27 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong tumbled 1.87 percent, Maxis tanked 2.50 percent, MISC lost 0.42 percent, MRDIY strengthened 1.48 percent, Nestle Malaysia surged 2.83 percent, Petronas Chemicals slumped 0.81 percent, Petronas Dagangan skyrocketed 9.97 percent, Petronas Gas rallied 1.77 percent, PPB Group retreated 1.70 percent, Press Metal dropped 0.60 percent, Public Bank perked 0.22 percent, QL Resources climbed 1.07 percent, RHB Bank stumbled 2.31 percent, SD Guthrie advanced 0.82 percent, Sunway dipped 0.22 percent, Telekom Malaysia declined 0.93 percent, Tenaga Nasional improved 0.44 percent, YTL Corporation shed 0.49 percent, YTL Power rose 0.29 percent and Maybank was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up slightly positive as the major averages spent almost all of Friday in the red before peeking into the green just before the close.

The Dow added 32.05 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 41,985.35, while the NASDAQ gained 92.45 points or 0.52 percent to close at 17,784.05 and the S&P 500 perked 4.67 points or 0.08 percent to end at 5,667.56.

For the week, the Dow jumped 1.2 percent, while the S&P and the NASDAQ both ended four-week losing streaks, rising by 0.5 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.

The early weakness on Wall Street came amid ongoing concerns about the economic outlook along with rising geopolitical tensions and uncertainty about the impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs.

Crude oil prices bounced higher on Friday on geopolitical tensions after new U.S. sanctions against a Chinese refinery that purchased Iranian oil. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery climbed $0.23 or 0.3 percent to $68.30 a barrel.