Little Movement Anticipated For Malaysia Bourse

(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market has finished lower in five straight sessions, slumping more than 20 points or 1.2 percent along the way. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just above the 1,590-point plateau and it's likely to hover in that neighborhood again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak, with oil and technology stocks likely to weigh on the markets. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The KLCI finished slightly lower again on Friday following mixed performances from the financial shares, plantation stocks and telecoms.

For the day, the index dipped 2.32 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 1,590.37 after trading between 1,590.00 and 1,598.16.

Among the actives, Axiata stumbled 1.51 percent, while Celcomdigi plummeted 2.70 percent, CIMB Group advanced 0.74 percent, Genting jumped 1.71 percent, Genting Malaysia surged 2.36 percent, IHH Healthcare fell 0.48 percent, IOI Corporation lost 0.53 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong spiked 1.97 percent, Maxis slumped 0.85 percent, Maybank sank 0.70 percent, MISC climbed 0.95 percent, MRDIY retreated 1.55 percent, Petronas Chemicals declined 0.92 percent, PPB Group skidded 0.83 percent, Press Metal tumbled 1.72 percent, Public Bank dropped 0.74 percent, Sime Darby rallied 1.19 percent, Telekom Malaysia rose 0.15 percent, Tenaga Nasional shed 0.58 percent, YTL Corporation soared 1.99 percent, YTL Power added 0.59 percent and QL Resources, RHB Capital, SD Guthrie, Hong Leong Bank and Nestle Malaysia were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Friday and ultimately finished mixed but little changed.

The Dow added 15.53 points or 0.04 percent to finish at 39,150.33, while the NASDAQ shed 32.24 points or 0.18 percent to end at 17,689.36 and the S&P 500 dipped 8.55 points or 0.16 percent to close at 5,464.62.

For the holiday-shortened week, the Dow jumped 1.5 percent and the S&P 500 climbed 0.6 percent, while the NASDAQ was nearly unchanged.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders assessed recent activity in the markets, which saw the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 reach new record intraday highs before turning lower.

Traders also kept an eye on shares of Nvidia (NVDA), as the AI darling has recently been a key driver of the markets. It dragged the technology shares lower after slumping 3.2 percent on Friday after briefly surpassing Microsoft (MSFT) as the world's most valuable public company.

On the economic front, the National Association of Realtors said existing home sales in the U.S. fell roughly in line with estimates in May. A separate report from the Conference Board said leading U.S. economic indicators fell more than expected last month.

Oil futures settled lower on Friday, weighed down by concerns about the outlook for global oil demand and a firm greenback. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for July shed $0.56 or 0.7 percent at $80.73 a barrel for the week but gained 3 percent for the week.

Closer to home, Malaysia will provide May data for consumer prices later today; in April, inflation was up 0.2 percent on month and 1.8 percent on year.