Renewed Consolidation Expected For Malaysia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market on Wednesday ended the two-day slide in which it had given up more than 30 points or 2 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just above the 1,680-point plateau although it may hand back those gains on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is slightly soft, with selling pressure among the technology stocks likely to tip the markets into the red. The European and U.S. bourses were mostly lower and the Asian markets figure to follow that lead.

The KLCI finished slightly higher on Wednesday following gains from the telecoms, weakness from the financials and a mixed picture from the plantations and industrials.

For the day, the index perked 2.21 points or 0.13 percent to finish at 1,682.13 after trading between 1,680.49 and 1,690.66.

Among the actives, 99 Speed Mart Retail advanced 0.56 percent, while AMMB Holdings and Gamuda both improved 0.46 percent, Celcomdigi vaulted 1.13 percent, CIMB Group shed 0.67 percent, IHH Healthcare jumped 1.99 percent, IOI Corporation sank 0.70 percent, Maxis and MRDIY both strengthened 1.23 percent, Maybank eased 0.18 percent, Nestle Malaysia expanded 0.69 percent, Petronas Chemicals climbed 0.99 percent, Petronas Dagangan fell 0.43 percent, Petronas Gas added 0.34 percent, PPB Group slumped 0.96 percent, Public Bank collected 0.41 percent, RHB Bank dropped 0.72 percent, SD Guthrie rose 0.16 percent, Sunway gained 0.19 percent, Sunway Health lost 0.55 percent, Telekom Malaysia perked 0.14 percent, Tenaga Nasional dipped 0.14 percent, YTL Corporation increased 0.49 percent and YTL Power, Axiata, MISC, Kuala Lumpur Kepong, Sime Darby and Press Metal were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday but couldn't hold the gains, finally finishing mixed.

The Dow climbed 182.06 points or 0.35 percent to finish at 51,848.90, while the NASDAQ slumped 110.40 points or 0.43 percent to close at 25,476.63 and the S&P 500 slipped 7.24 points or 0.10 percent to end at 7,358.22.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street, and especially the tech-heavy NASDAQ, was the result of renewed selling among semiconductor stocks over artificial intelligence infrastructure concerns.

The early strength came despite some uncertainty surrounding the US-Iran peace deal amid disagreements between the two nations over a few key terms of the pact.

A slide in crude oil prices also spurred the markets higher as West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery tumbled $2.87 or 3.92 percent to $70.34 per barrel as shipping traffic picks up across the Strait of Hormuz.

In economic news, data from the Commerce Department showed sales of new single-family homes in the US tumbled 7.3 percent month-over-month in May to the lowest annualized rate of 580,000, following an upwardly revised 626,000 in April.