Little Movement Expected For Malaysia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market on Friday wrote a finish to the three-day slide in which it had stumbled more than 25 points or 1.6 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now rests just beneath the 1,475-point plateau although it's likely to spin its wheels on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower thanks to continuing concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets are expected to split the difference.

The KLCI finished modestly higher on Friday as gains from the financials and telecoms were capped by weakness from the plantation stocks.

For the day, the index added 9.95 points or 0.68 percent to finish at 1,474.59 after trading between 1,463.31 and 1,476.03.

Among the actives, Axiata retreated 1.67 percent, while Dialog Group jumped 1.20 percent, Digi.com sank 0.48 percent, Genting and Telekom Malaysia both advanced 0.59 percent, Genting Malaysia rallied 1.05 percent, IHH Healthcare dropped 0.84 percent, INARI lost 0.38 percent, IOI Corporation fell 0.26 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong dipped 0.18 percent, Maybank spiked 1.51 percent, Maxis declined 1.49 percent, MISC shed 0.41 percent, MRDIY tumbled 2.15 percent, Petronas Chemicals rose 0.12 percent, Press Metal sank 0.76 percent, Public Bank soared 1.69 percent, RHB Capital collected 0.18 percent, Sime Darby and QL Resources both climbed 0.86 percent, Sime Darby Plantations added 0.46 percent, Tenaga Nasional surged 2.52 percent and CIMB Group, PPB Group and Nestle were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is inconsistent as the major averages opened lower on Friday, although only the NASDAQ ended the session in the red.

The Dow climbed 169.37 points or 0.50 percent to finish at 33,869.27, while the NASDAQ sank 71.48 points or 061 percent to end at 11,718.12 and the S&P 500 rose 8.96 points or 0.22 percent to close at 4,090.46.

For the week, the NASSDAQ tumbled 2.4 percent, the S&P lost 1.1 percent and the Dow dipped 0.2 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street reflected lingering uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates ahead of this week's closely watched inflation data.

Traders also reacted to mixed February consumer sentiment data released by the University of Michigan. While consumer sentiment saw a continued improvement in February, the report also showed a rebound in near-term inflation expectations.

Crude oil futures settled sharply higher Friday on continued optimism about higher fuel demand from China, and on Russia's move to reduce oil output next month. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended higher by $1.66 or 2.1 percent at $79.72 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained 9 percent in the week.