Rally May Stall For Malaysia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, collecting almost 15 points or 1 percent along the way. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just beneath the 1,520-point plateau although it may run out steam on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests caution ahead of key U.S. employment data later in the day. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were slightly lower and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The KLCI finished modestly higher on Thursday as gains from the plantations and industrials were capped by weakness from the financial shares and the telecoms.

For the day, the index gained 10.15 points or 0.67 percent to finish at 1,518.12 after trading between 1,509.25 and 1,520.34.

Among the actives, 99 Speed Mart Retail jumped 2.43 percent, while Axiata tumbled 1.96 percent, Celcomdigi retreated 1.28 percent, Gamuda climbed 1.72 percent, IHH Healthcare advanced 1.33 percent, IOI Corporation improved 0.83 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong added 0.51 percent, Maxis slumped 1.10 percent, Maybank fell 0.21 percent, MRDIY rallied 2.58 percent, Nestle Malaysia dropped 0.97 percent, Petronas Chemicals soared 3.70 percent, PPB Group perked 0.18 percent, Press Metal spiked 3.06 percent, Public Bank lost 0.23 percent, QL Resources sank 0.92 percent, RHB Bank dipped 0.16 percent, Sime Darby accelerated 2.94 percent, SD Guthrie gained 0.22 percent, Sunway increased 0.63 percent, Telekom Malaysia shed 0.60 percent, Tenaga Nasional strengthened 1.87 percent, YTL Corporation skyrocketed 7.98 percent, YTL Power surged 6.69 percent and CIMB Group, MISC and Hong Leong Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened mixed but spent most of the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before finishing modestly under water.

The Dow dropped 108.00 points or 0.25 percent to finish at 42,319.74, while the NASDAQ stumbled 162.04 points or 0.83 percent to close at 19,298.45 and the S&P 500 sank 31.51 points or 0.53 percent to end at 5,939.30.

Stocks saw some strength earlier in the day after President Donald Trump confirmed in a post on Truth Social that he had an approximately 90-minute phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

However, traders seemed reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

The data could have a significant impact on the outlook for the economy following Wednesday's weaker than expected reports on private sector employment and service sector activity.

In the bond market, treasuries pulled into negative territory after seeing early strength. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose 2.9 basis points to 4.394 percent, after hitting a nearly one-month intraday low of 4.318 percent.