Continued Selling Pressure Called For Malaysia Shares

(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, slipping almost 10 points or 0.5 percent along the way. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now rests just above the 1,715-point plateau, and the market may extend its losses on Friday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, thanks to falling crude oil prices and concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed but little changed, and the Asian markets are expected to split the difference.

The KLCI finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares and the plantation stocks.

For the day, the index dipped 9.02 points or 0.52 percent to finish at 1,715.53 after trading between 1,710.87 and 1,720.98. Volume was 1.68 billion shares worth 1.88 billion ringgit. There were 513 decliners and 318 gainers, with 358 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Tenaga Nasional, CIMB Group, Genting, Public Bank, Hong Leong Bank, Kuala Lumpur Kepong, PPB Group and AirAsia all finished lower, while Maybank was unchanged and RHB Capital, IOI Corporation and Sime Darby ended higher. The lead from Wall Street is negative as stocks opened in the red on Thursday before rebounding to end flat in the last day of the holiday-shortened week. The S&P 500 eased 0.77 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 2,035.94, while the Dow crept up 13.14 points or 0.1 percent to 17,515.73 and the NASDAQ inched up 4.64 points or 0.1 percent to 4,773.50. For the week, the S&P 500 slid 0.7 percent, while the Dow and the NASDAQ both fell 0.5 percent. Profit taking contributed to the initial weakness, along with concerns about the outlook for interest rates following comments from St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard. Bullard said the relatively minor downgrades to the Fed's economic outlook suggest the next rate hike "may not be far off provided that the economy evolves as expected." A decrease by the price of crude oil also weighed on the markets in early trading, although a rebound contributed to the subsequent recovery by the markets. On the economic front, the Labor Department noted a modest increase in initial jobless claims in the week ended March 19. A separate report from the Commerce Department showed a pullback in durable goods orders in February.

Closer to home, Malaysia will provide February data for consumer prices later today, with inflation expected to ease 0.4 percent on month and climb 3.9 percent on year. That follows the 0.3 percent monthly decline and the 3.5 percent yearly increase in January.