Renewed Selling Pressure Anticipated For Malaysia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market on Friday snapped the four-day losing streak in which it had retreated more than 35 points or 2.1 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now rests just above the 1,555-point plateau although it figures to head south again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over U.S. tariffs that were put in place over the weekend. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KLCI finished modestly higher on Friday as gains from the financials and telecoms were offset by weakness from the plantation stocks.

For the day, the index rose 4.23 points or 0.27 percent to finish at 1,556.92 after trading between 1,545.84 and 1,563.03.

Among the actives, 99 Speed Mart Retail jumped 1.37 percent, while Axiata added 0.91 percent, CIMB Group climbed 1.01 percent, Gamuda was up 0.25 percent, IHH Healthcare strengthened 0.14 percent, IOI Corporation fell 0.27 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong sank 0.90 percent, Maxis shed 0.85 percent, Maybank advanced 0.98 percent, MISC increased 0.56 percent, MRDIY spiked 1.82 percent, Nestle Malaysia dropped 0.92 percent, Petronas Chemicals lost 0.43 percent, PPB Group soared 2.40 percent, Press Metal perked 0.20 percent, Public Bank slumped 1.37 percent, QL Resources gathered 0.44 percent, RHB Bank collected 0.78 percent, Sime Darby surged 3.69 percent, SD Guthrie tumbled 2.61 percent, Sunway improved 0.93 percent, Telekom Malaysia rallied 1.54 percent, YTL Corporation rose 0.53 percent, YTL Power gained 0.64 percent and Celcomdigi, Tenaga Nasional and Hong Leong Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened higher on Friday and stayed that way for much of the day before a late slide saw them all finish in the red.

The Dow tumbled 337.44 points or 0.75 percent to finish at 44.544.66, while the NASDAQ slumped 54.26 points or 0.28 percent to close at 19,627.44 and the S&P 500 sank 30.64 points or 0.50 percent to end at 6,040.53. For the week, the Dow rose 0.3 percent, the S&P 500 dropped 1.0 percent and the NASDAQ lost 1.6 percent.

Stocks plummeted in afternoon trading after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed President Donald Trump's threatened tariffs will be levied against major U.S. trading partners beginning the following day.

Leavitt said the Trump administration will be implementing 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada as well as a 10 percent tariff on China.

The news the tariffs will be implemented led to concerns about higher inflation keeping the Federal Reserve on hold for longer.

Oil futures settled lower Friday amid uncertainty about implementation of Trump's tariff plans on Canada and Mexico, while a stronger dollar also weighed. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for March fell $0.20 at $72.53 a barrel.