Malaysia Bourse May Break Resistance At 1,600 Points

(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market on Tuesday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had climbed almost 15 points or 1 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just beneath the 1,600-point plateau although it's likely to see renewed support on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of Friday's U.S. employment data. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KLCI finished barely lower on Tuesday as losses from the plantations, support from the financials and a mixed picture from the telecoms.

For the day, the index dipped 0.24 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 1,597.96 after trading between 1,595.62 and 1,602.52.

Among the actives, Axiata tumbled 1.88 percent, while Celcomdigi plummeted 4.07 percent, CIMB Group advanced 0.73 percent, Genting slumped 0.64 percent, IOI Corporation retreated 1.61 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong dropped 0.49 percent, Maxis plunged 2.23 percent, Maybank was up 0.20 percent, MRDIY spiked 2.65 percent, Petronas Chemicals sank 0.48 percent, PPB Group tanked 2.08 percent, Public Bank collected 0.25 percent, QL Resources lost 0.46 percent, RHB Capital perked 0.18 percent, Sime Darby rallied 0.77 percent, SD Guthrie shed 0.47 percent, Sunway surged 3.23 percent, Telekom Malaysia fell 0.29 percent, YTL Corporation rose 0.28 percent, YTL Power soared 3.06 percent, Genting Malaysia declined 0.78 percent, MISC gained 0.47 percent, Press Metal added 0.52 percent and Nestle Malaysia, Hong Leong Bank, IHH Healthcare and Tenaga Nasional were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and hugged the line for much of the day before a late surge sent them firmly into the green by the close.

The Dow jumped 162.33 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 39,331.85, while the NASDAQ rallied 149.46 points or 0.84 percent to close at 18,028.76 and the S&P 500 gained 33.92 points or 0.62 percent to end at 5,509.01.

The soft start on Wall Street followed comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who expressed satisfaction with the progress on inflation but said he wants to see more before being confident enough to start cutting interest rates.

Stocks moved higher after bond yields drifted down as investors look ahead to key employment data later in the week.

Oil prices fell on Tuesday amid easing fears about supply disruptions caused by Hurricane Beryl. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended down $0.57 or about 0.7 percent at $82.81 a barrel.