Renewed Support Anticipated For Malaysia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market on Thursday wrote a finish to the four-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 30 points or 2 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just beneath the 1,625-point plateau although it's expected to bounce higher again on Friday.

The global forecast is positive after the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points. The European and U.S. markets were mostly higher and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The KLCI finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the plantation stocks, industrials and telecoms, while the financial sector was mixed.

For the day, the index lost 10.89 points or 0.67 percent to finish at 1,623.28 after trading between 79,419.34 and 80,563.42.

Among the actives, Axiata tumbled 2.58 percent, while Celcomdigi sank 1.47 percent, CIMB Group dipped 0.24 percent, Genting skidded 1.74 percent, Genting Malaysia retreated 2.17 percent, IHH Healthcare and Tenaga Nasional both eased 0.14 percent, IOI Corporation dropped 1.52 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong shed 1.26 percent, Maxis stumbled 2.49 percent, Maybank gave up 0.19 percent, MISC jumped 1.92 percent, MRDIY plunged 4.46 percent, Nestle Malaysia lost 1.19 percent, Petronas Chemicals declined 1.80 percent, PPB Group surrendered 2.75 percent, Press Metal tanked 3.31 percent, Public Bank collected 0.22 percent, QL Resources was down 0.21 percent, RHB Bank gained 0.78 percent, Sime Darby and Hong Leong Financial both fell 0.85 percent, SD Guthrie slid 0.80 percent, Telekom Malaysia slipped 0.30 percent, YTL Corporation plummeted 4.95 percent, YTL Power weakened 1.76 percent and Sunway and Petron as Gas were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened mixed on Thursday and ended mostly to the upside, with the NASDAQ and S&P both hitting fresh record closing highs..

The Dow eased 0.59 points or 0.00 percent to finish at 43,729.34, while the NASDAQ surged 285.99 points or 1.51 percent to close at 19,269.46 and the S&P 500 advanced 44.06 points or 0.74 percent to end at 5,973.10.

The continued strength on Wall Street reflected ongoing optimism about the impact of former President Donald Trump's return to the White House, which is expected to be positive for corporations.

Stocks saw continued strength as the Federal Reserve announced its widely expected decision to lower interest rates by a quarter point.

Oil futures settled notably higher on Thursday as traders weighed the potential impact of Donald Trump's presidency on the geopolitical scene, against the interest rate cut announcement by the Federal Reserve. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December closed up $0.67 or 0.93 percent at $72.36 a barrel.

Closer to home, Malaysia will see September data for industrial production and unemployment later today; in August, production was up 4.1 percent on year and the jobless rate was 3.2 percent.