Malaysia Bourse Likely To Give Up Support At 1,600 Points

(RTTNews) - Ahead of Thursday's Deepavali holiday, the Malaysia stock market headed south again - one day after ending the six-day losing streak in which it had stumbled more than 35 points or 2.3 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just above the 1,600-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the red again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative, with pressure likely among technology stocks amid waning optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets finished firmly in the red and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit.

The KLCI finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the telecoms and industrials, while the financials were mixed.

For the day, the index lost 13.20 points or 0.82 percent to finish at 1,601.88 after trading between 1,601.45 and 1,615.36. Among the actives, Axiata surrendered 2.16 percent, while Celcomdigi stumbled 2.29 percent, CIMB Group slumped 1.24 percent, Genting sank 1.00 percent, Genting Malaysia declined 1.75 percent, Hong Leong Bank rose 0.29 percent, IHH Healthcare fell 0.55 percent, IOI Corporation dropped 1.05 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong skidded 1.11 percent, Maxis plunged 4.74 percent, Maybank collected 0.38 percent, MISC eased 0.13 percent, MRDIY dipped 0.45 percent, Petronas Chemicals tumbled 2.34 percent, PPB Group retreated 1.97 percent, Press Metal gained 0.42 percent, Public Bank shed 0.90 percent, QL Resources gave up 0.21 percent, Sime Darby plummeted 5.31 percent, SD Guthrie tanked 3.36 percent, Sunway added 0.69 percent, Telekom Malaysia slipped 0.31 percent, Tenaga Nasional was down 0.14 percent, YTL Corporation slid 0.50 percent, YTL Power lost 0.64 percent and RHB Capital and Petronas Dagangan were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is bleak as the major averages opened solidly under water and stayed that way throughout the trading day.

The Dow tumbled 378.08 points or 0.90 percent to finish at 41,763.46, while the NASDAQ plummeted 512.78 points or 2.76 percent to close at 18,095.15 and the S&P 500 slumped 108.22 points or 1.86 percent to end at 5,705.45.

The sell-off on Wall Street came amid a negative reaction to earnings news from tech giants Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta Platforms (META).

Traders were also reacting to closely watched consumer price inflation data that largely came in line with economist estimates, although core CPI resisted lower forecasts to remain unchanged. That added to recent concerns the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates more slowly than hoped.

Oil prices climbed higher on Thursday amid expectations of increased demand from the U.S. and a likely delay in OPEC's planned output increase from December. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended higher by $0.65 or 0.95 percent at $69.26 a barrel.