Malaysia Shares Tipped To See Renewed Support On Thursday

The Malaysia stock market headed south again on Wednesday, one day after snapping the two-day slide in which it had eased less than a single point or 0.1 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just beneath the 1,530-point plateau although the market is expected to rebound on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly positive, with selling in the previous session deemed to be seriously overdone. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian markets figure to open in similar fashion.

The KLCI finished slightly lower on Wednesday following gains from the telecoms, losses from the plantations and a mixed picture from the financial sector.

For the day, the index eased 2.04 points or 0.13 percent to finish at 1,529.33 after trading between 1,521.79 and 1,530.95.

Among the actives, AMMB Holdings jumped 1.17 percent, while Celcomdigi gathered 0.24 percent, CIMB Group gained 0.47 percent, Genting lost 0.20 percent, Genting Malaysia shed 0.35 percent, IHH Healthcare declined 1.13 percent, IOI Corporation and YTL Power both dropped 0.50 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong and Tenaga Nasional both fell 0.18 percent, Maxis skidded 0.79 percent, Maybank sank 0.42 percent, MISC climbed 0.95 percent, MRDIY advanced 0.69 percent, Petronas Chemicals slumped 1.02 percent, PPB Group eased 0.13 percent, Press Metal retreated 1.29 percent, RHB Capital perked 0.18 percent, Sime Darby rose 0.41 percent, Sime Darby Plantations tumbled 1.54 percent, Telekom Malaysia added 0.51 percent and Axiata, YTL Corporation, Public Bank and Hong Leong Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday and largely remained that way, ending near session highs.

The Dow jumped 151.52 points or 0.40 percent to finish at 38,424.27, while the NASDAQ rallied 203.55 points or 1.30 percent to end at 15,859.15 and the S&P 500 advanced 47.45 points or 0.96 percent to close at 5,000.62.

The rebound on Wall Street reflected bargain hunting, with traders seeing Tuesday’s sharp pullback as a buying opportunity amid ongoing optimism about the outlook for the markets.

While Tuesday’s hotter-than-expected inflation data further pushed back interest rate cut hopes, signs of continued strength in the economy are still expected to benefit the markets long term.

The Federal Reserve is also still likely to begin lower interest rates sometime in the coming months, even if traders have to wait until June.

Oil futures settled lower on Wednesday, snapping a seven-day winning streak after data showed a big increase in crude inventories in the U.S. last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended down $1.23 or about 1.6 percent at $76.64 a barrel.

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