Rally May Stall For Malaysia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market has tracked higher in four straight sessions, collecting almost 20 points or 1.1 percent along the way. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just beneath the 1,760-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative due to uncertainty surrounding U.S. tariff policies. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit. The KLCI finished slightly higher on Monday as the financials, telecoms and plantations were mostly in the green. For the day, the index rose 5.15 points or 0.29 percent to finish at 1,757.98 after trading between 1,752.48 and 1,760.03. Among the actives, 99 Speed Mart Retail improved 0.83 percent, while AMMB Holdings slumped 1.37 percent, Axiata sank 0.43 percent, Celcomdigi spiked 2.51 percent, CIMB Group rose 0.12 percent, IHH Healthcare vaulted 1.81 percent, IOI Corporation jumped 2.25 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong eased 0.10 percent, Maxis expanded 1.28 percent, Maybank lost 0.16 percent, MISC increased 0.73 percent, MRDIY climbed 1.07 percent, Nestle Malaysia accelerated 2.46 percent, Petronas Chemicals plummeted 4.64 percent, Petronas Dagangan perked 0.10 percent, Petronas Gas gained 0.43 percent, PPB Group surged 2.76 percent, Press Metal tumbled 2.21 percent, Public Bank collected 0.99 percent, QL Resources plunged 2.48 percent, RHB Bank shed 0.37 percent, Sime Darby soared 2.61 percent, SD Guthrie advanced 1.02 percent, Telekom Malaysia rallied 2.11 percent, Tenaga Nasional fell 0.14 percent, YTL Corporation added 0.49 percent, YTL Power dropped 0.66 percent and Gamuda and Sunway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is bleak as the major averages opened lower and remained in the red throughout the session, ending near daily lows.

The Dow plummeted 821.91 points or 1.66 percent to finish at 48,804.06, while the NASDAQ tumbled 258.79 points or 1.13 percent to close at 22,627.27 and the S&P 500 dropped 71.76 points or 1.04 percent to end at 6,837.75.

The sell-off on Wall Street came amid renewed trade uncertainty following the Supreme Court's decision last Friday striking down most of President Donald Trump's sweeping global tariffs.

Meanwhile, the European Commission issued a statement requesting "full clarity" on the steps the U.S. intends to take following the Supreme Court decision.

Negative sentiment was also generated in reaction to a nosedive by shares of IBM Corp. (IBM) after Anthropic's Claude announced COBOL capabilities. COBOL is a programming language used widely in business data processing, which is a core business for IBM.

Crude oil prices sputtered on Monday as demand concerns reappeared following the uncertainty generated by the tariff issues. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery slipped $0.10 or 0.15 percent to $66.38 per barrel.