Malaysia Bourse May Be Stuck In Neutral On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market has moved higher in back-to-back sessions, collecting almost 15 points or 1 percent along the way. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just above the 1,550-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is one of caution ahead of the FOMC meeting later this week. The European markets were mixed and flat and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The KLCI finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares and telecoms and a mixed performance from the plantations.

For the day, the index added 9.08 percent or 0.59 percent to finish at the daily high of 1,552.83 after moving as low as 1,535.47.

Among the actives, Axiata shed 0.34 percent, while Celcomdigi soared 2.80 percent, CIMB Group spiked 2.56 percent, Genting dropped 0.79 percent, Genting Malaysia slid 0.34 percent, IHH Healthcare and Nestle Malaysia both lost 0.33 percent, IOI Corporation rose 0.25 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong was up 0.09 percent, Maxis was down 0.56 percent, Maybank collected 0.62 percent, MISC slumped 0.56 percent, MRDIY tumbled 1.34 percent, Petronas Chemicals added 0.44 percent, PPB Group advanced 0.78 percent, Press Metal perked 0.21 percent, Public Bank climbed 0.95 percent, QL Resources declined 1.00 percent, Sime Darby sank 0.74 percent, Sime Darby Plantations retreated 1.14 percent, Telekom Malaysia skyrocketed 8.51 percent, Tenaga Nasional gained 0.35 percent, YTL Corporation surged 3.57 percent, YTL Power rallied 2.22 percent and RHB Capital was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Friday and remained under water throughout the trading day.

The Dow tumbled 190.89 points or 0.49 percent to finish at 38,714.77, while the NASDAQ dropped 155.36 points or 0.96 percent to close at 15,973.17 and the S&P 500 sank 33.39 points or 0.65 percent to end at 5,117.09. For the week, the NASDAQ fell 0.7 percent, the S&P eased 0.1 percent and the Dow was nearly flat.

The weakness on Wall Street reflected concerns about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Fed's monetary policy meeting later this week.

While the Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders will look to the accompanying statement for clues about the outlook for rates. Recent hotter-than-expected inflation readings have reduced optimism that the Fed's first rate cut may come in June.

In economic news, the Labor Department said U.S. import prices increased in line with estimates in February, while export prices exceeded expectations. The Fed also noted a slight increase in U.S. industrial production in February.

Oil prices dropped on Friday, retreating from multi-month highs, due largely to profit taking after recent strong gains. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended down by $0.22 at $81.04 a barrel.

Closer to home, Malaysia will release February figures for imports, exports and trade balance later today; in January, imports were up 18.8 percent on year, exports rose 8.7 percent and the trade surplus was MYR10.10 billion.