Malaysia Bourse May Crack Resistance At 1,700 Points

(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes since the end of the three-day winning streak in which it had climbed more than 25 points or 1.5 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just above the 1,690-point plateau and it may open to the upside again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic, spurred by strong tech support and easing crude oil prices. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were slightly higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The KLCI finished modestly higher on Friday as the financial shares, telecoms and plantations were mostly in the green.

For the day, the index improved 13.95 points or 0.83 percent to finish at 1,691.49 after trading between 1,682.78 and 1,696.25.

The lead from Wall Street suggests mild upside as the major averages shook off a slow start on Friday and trended slightly higher for the rest of the day, ending near session highs.

The Dow added 149.60 points or 0.29 percent to finish at 52,637.01. while the NASDAQ gained 74.72 points or 0.29 percent to close at 26,281.61 and the S&P 500 rose 31.75 points or 0.42 percent to end at 7,575.39.

For the week, the tech-heavy NASDAQ surged 1.7 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 1.2 percent and the Dow advanced 0.5 percent.

The upward move on Wall Street partly reflected strength among some big-name tech stocks, including Meta Platforms (META), Nvidia (NVDA) and the U.S.-listed debut shares of SK Hynix.

However, traders largely seemed reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the unofficial start of earnings season this week. Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), Goldman Sachs (GS), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), UnitedHealth (UNH) and Netflix (NFLX) are among the companies due to report their quarterly results.

Crude oil prices slumped on Friday, thanks to efforts by third-party mediators to bring the U.S. and Iran back to the negotiating table. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery was down $0.75 or 1.04 percent at $71.33 per barrel.