Continued Selling Pressure Called For Malaysia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, slipping almost 20 points or 1.3 percent along the way. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now rests just above the 1,470-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the red again on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns for the economy and for the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were firmly in the red and the Asian markets are tipped to follow the latter lead. The KLCI finished modestly lower on Monday as losses from the plantations, glove makers and telecoms were mitigated by support from the financial shares. For the day, the index lost 10.24 points or 0.69 percent to finish at 1,471.56 after trading between 1,470.33 and 1,482.08. Among the actives, Axiata tumbled 2.54 percent, while Dialog Group slumped 1.29 percent, Digi.com declined 2.26 percent, Genting weakened 1.12 percent, Hartalega Holdings and IOI Corporation both stumbled 1.81 percent, IHH Healthcare rose 0.34 percent, INARI skidded 1.07 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong dipped 0.10 percent, Maxis lost 0.26 percent, MISC sank 0.42 percent, MRDIY plummeted 3.74 percent, Petronas Chemicals fell 0.23 percent, PPB Group dropped 0.58 percent, Public Bank collected 0.68 percent, RHB Capital added 0.54 percent, Sime Darby Plantations retreated 2.22 percent, Telekom Malaysia surrendered 2.50 percent, Tenaga Nasional tanked 3.30 percent, Top Glove plunged 3.55 percent and Sime Darby, CIMB Group, Maybank, Press Metal and Genting Malaysia were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened modestly lower and the losses accelerated as the day progressed, ending near session lows.

The Dow tumbled 482.78 points or 1.40 percent to finish at 33,947.10, while the NASDAQ slumped 221.56 points or 1.93 percent to close at 11,239.94 and the S&P 500 sank 72.86 points or 1.79 percent to end at 3,998.84.

The weakness on Wall Street reflected lingering uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates following last Friday's stronger-than-expected jobs data.

While the Federal Reserve is widely expected to slow the pace of interest rate hikes next week, continued labor market tightness and elevated inflation may still lead the central bank to raise rates higher than currently anticipated. A drop in treasuries compounded the uncertainty.

Adding to the worries about where rates will peak, the Institute for Supply Management said that U.S. service sector activity unexpectedly accelerated in November.

Oil prices fell on Monday as strong U.S. service data raised the prospects for more aggressive moves by the Federal Reserve. West Texas Intermediate Crude futures for January ended lower by $3.05 or 3.8 percent at $76.93 a barrel.