Malaysia Shares Called Rangebound For Monday’s Trade

The Malaysia stock market on Friday wrote a finish to the three-day losing streak in which it had slipped almost 8 points or 0.6 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now rests just above the 1,425-point plateau and it’s expected to see little movement on Monday.

There’s not much of a global forecast, as most of the markets in Europe and the United States were closed on Friday for Good Friday. Key U.S. employment data was roughly in line with expectations, suggesting a steady if quiet session.

The KLCI finished slightly higher on Friday following gains from the plantations and mixed performances from the financials and telecoms.

For the day, the index perked 2.15 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 1,427.04 after trading between 1,421.62 and 1,427.08.

Among the actives, Axiata and Kuala Lumpur Kepong both climbed 0.67 percent, while CIMB Group tumbled 1.90 percent, Dialog Group retreated 0.84 percent, Digi.com soared 3.29 percent, Genting and Tenaga Nasional both fell 0.22 percent, Genting Malaysia lost 0.38 percent, IHH Healthcare spiked 2.26 percent, INARI plunged 2.46 percent, Maybank collected 0.12 percent, Maxis added 0.25 percent, MRDIY declined 1.85 percent, Petronas Chemicals surged 3.45 percent, PPB Group advanced 0.61 percent, Public Bank sank 0.50 percent, RHB Capital rallied 0.89 percent, Sime Darby Plantations gained 0.24 percent, Telekom Malaysia jumped 1.23 percent and MISC, IOI Corporation, Press Metal and Sime Darby were unchanged.

There is no lead from Wall Street as the stock and oil markets were closed for Good Friday. The big catalyst for the day, however, was the closely watched U.S. jobs report for March.

The Labor Department said that employment in the U.S. increased roughly in line with forecasts in March as non-farm payroll employment climbed by 236,000 jobs after jumping by an upwardly revised 326,000 jobs in February.

Economists had expected employment to rise by about 240,000 jobs compared to the addition of 311,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

Also, the unemployment rate edged down to 3.5 percent in March from 3.6 percent in February; the unemployment rate was expected to be unchanged.

The numbers fall in the butter zone, which is to say good enough to dispel fears of an economic slowdown but not so good as the encourage the Federal Reserve to feel comfortable applying another rate hike anytime soon.

Closer to home, Malaysia will see March figures for unemployment later today; in the previous month, the jobless rate was 3.6 percent.