Malaysia Shares May Test Resistance At 1,500 Points

(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market on Friday snapped the two-day slide in which it had slumped more than 15 points or 1 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just beneath the 1,490-point plateau and it's likely to be rangebound again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement and uncertainty thanks to the ongoing hostilities in the Middle East. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KLCI finished slightly higher on Friday following gains from the power and telecom stocks and a mixed picture from the plantations and financials.

For the day, the index rose 4.34 point or 0.29 percent to finish at the daily high of 1,487.34 after moving as low as 1,482.02.

Among the actives, Celcomdigi and AMMB Holdings both rose 0.24 percent, while CIMB Group and IHH Healthcare both sank 0.50 percent, Genting climbed 0.43 percent, Genting Malaysia rallied 0.75 percent, IOI Corporation gained 0.25 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong was up 0.09 percent, Maxis spiked 0.78 percent, Maybank jumped 0.67 percent, MISC perked 0.14 percent, MRDIY accelerated 0.68 percent, Petronas Chemicals strengthened 0.58 percent, Press Metal and Sime Darby both advanced 0.41 percent, RHB Capital added 0.36 percent, Sime Darby Plantations tumbled 2.49 percent, Telekom Malaysia soared 1.22 percent, Tenaga Nasional slumped 0.96 percent, YTL Corporation surged 5.36 percent, YTL Power skyrocketed 9.20 percent and Axiata, PPB Group and Public Bank were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is of little help as the major averages opened slightly higher on Friday but then hugged both sides of the line for the rest of the session, ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow sank 118.04 points or 0.31 percent to finish at 37,592.98, while the NASDAQ rose 2.58 points or 0.02 percent to close at 14,972.76 and the S&P 500 perked 3.59 points or 0.08 percent to end at 4,783.83. For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 3.1 percent, the S&P added 1.8 percent and the Dow rose 0.3 percent.

The Dow was weighed by earnings news from the likes of UnitedHealth (UNH), Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM).

Traders were also reacting to a Labor Department report showing U.S. producer prices unexpectedly edged lower in December, adding to recent uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates.

Oil futures settled notably higher on Friday as an escalation in tensions in the Middle East raised concerns about delay in supplies. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February ended higher by $0.66 or 0.9 percent at $72.68 a barrel. For the week, the contract shed about 1.1 percent.