Malaysia Bourse May Give Up Support At 1,600 Points

(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market turned lower again on Friday, one day after snapping the two-day slide in which it had slipped more than 10 points or 0.6 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just above the 1,620-point plateau and the losses may accelerate on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is bleak on concerns of an escalation in the trade war between U.S. and China. The European and U.S. markets were sharply lower and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The KLCI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the telecoms and industrials, while the financial shares came in mixed.

For the day, the index slipped 7.42 points or 0.46 percent to finish at 1,622.25 after trading between 1,621.74 and 1,628.21. Among the actives, 99 Speed Mart Retail advanced 0.35 percent, while AMMB Holdings dipped 0.17 percent, Axiata tanked 2.27 percent, Celcomdigi and Maxis both slumped 1.35 percent, CIMB Group sank 0.92 percent, Gamuda slipped 0.19 percent, IHH Healthcare declined 1.36 percent, IOI Corporation dropped 1.00 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong skidded 1.06 percent, Maybank lost 0.50 percent, MISC jumped 1.37 percent, MRDIY plunged 2.35 percent, Nestle Malaysia retreated 2.01 percent, Petronas Chemicals was down 0.94 percent, Petronas Dagangan and PPB Group both gained 0.18 percent, Petronas Gas added 0.21 percent, Press Metal rallied 1.16 percent, Public Bank collected 0.23 percent, RHB Bank shed 0.59 percent, Sime Darby stumbled 2.26 percent, SD Guthrie climbed 1.14 percent, Sunway contracted 1.20 percent, Telekom Malaysia eased 0.14 percent, Tenaga Nasional fell 0.45 percent, YTL Corporation surrendered 2.21 percent, YTL Power tumbled 1.44 percent and QL Resources was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened roughly flat on Friday put plummeted in the late morning and finished deep in the red at session lows.

The Dow plunged 878.82 points or 1.90 percent to finish at 45,479.60, while the NASDAQ crashed 820.20 points or 3.56 percent to close at 22,204.43 and the S&P 500 stumbled 182.60 points or 2.71 percent to end at 6,552.51.

For the week, the Dow dove 2.7 percent, the NASDAQ slumped 2.5 percent and the S&P sank 2.4 percent.

The sell-off on Wall Street came after President Donald Trump threatened to retaliate against China's expansion of export controls on rare earths. Trump accused China of "becoming very hostile" in a post on social media platform Truth Social and threatened a "massive increase" in tariffs on Chinese products coming into the U.S.

In U.S. economic news, a report released by the University of Michigan said its reading on U.S. consumer sentiment was unchanged in October, while year-ahead inflation expectations ebbed to 4.6 percent from 4.7 percent in September.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Friday after Trump threatened to massively increases tariffs on China in retaliation for its expansion of export controls on rare earths. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was down $2.69 or 4.37 percent at $58.82 per barrel.