Malaysia Stock Market Tipped To Open In The Green On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - Ahead of Monday's holiday for Eid-al-Adha, the Malaysia stock market had turned lower again on Friday - one day after ending the three-day slide in which it had slumped almost 10 points or 0.6 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just beneath the 1,610-point plateau although it's expected to see renewed support on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is generally positive on optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KLCI finished slightly lower on Friday as losses from the plantations and industrials were offset by support from the financial shares and telecoms.

For the day, the index dipped 2.85 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 1,607.32 after trading between 1,604.48 and 1,611.90.

Among the actives, Press Metal Aluminum plummeted 3.05 percent, while Dialog Group plunged 2.72 percent, Petronas Gas tanked 1.89 percent, Sime Darby surrendered 1.56 percent, Inari tumbled 1.54 percent, MISC retreated 1.42 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong declined 1.25 percent, Maxis stumbled 1.09 percent, Celcomdigi rallied 1.09 percent, PPB Group slumped 0.96 percent, Nestle Malaysia climbed 0.73 percent, Axiata advanced 0.72 percent, CIMB Group collected 0.58 percent, IOI Corporation dropped 0.53 percent, Tenaga Nasional sank 0.42 percent, Genting Malaysia shed 0.39 percent, IHH Healthcare lost 0.32 percent, Telekom Malaysia added 0.31 percent, AMMB Holdings fell 0.21 percent, Maybank rose 0.20 percent, QL Resources slid 0.16 percent, Petronas Chemicals eased 0.15 percent and Hong Leong Financial, Public Bank, Mr. DIY, SD Guthrie, RHB Bank, Genting and Petronas Dagangan were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened lower on Monday but quickly turned higher and finished solidly in the green.

The Dow jumped 188.94 points or 0.49 percent to finish at 38,778.10, while the NASDAQ rallied 168.14 points or 0.95 percent to close at 17,857.02 and the S&P 500 gained 41.63 points or 0.77 percent to end at 5,473.23.

The buying interest that emerged on Wall Street came as the markets benefitted from the positive sentiment generated last week by tamer-than-expected inflation data.

While Federal Reserve officials forecast just one interest rate cut this year following last Wednesday's monetary policy meeting, traders remain hopeful the predictions will turn out to be overly conservative if inflation continues to slow in the coming months.

On the U.S. economic front, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released a report this morning showing New York manufacturing activity contracted at a notably slower rate in June.

Oil prices rose to a fresh six-week high on Monday on hopes about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for July ended higher by $1.88 or about 1.25 percent at $80.33 a barrel, the highest settlement since April 29.