Malaysia Shares May Take Further Damage On Thursday

The Malaysia stock market has finished lower in two of three trading days since the end of the three-day winning streak in which it had gathered more than 10 points or 0.7 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now rests just above the 1,620-point plateau and the losses may accelerate on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative on disappointing earnings news and soft data. The European and U.S. markets finished sharply lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The KLCI finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the telecoms and mixed performances from the financial shares and plantation stocks.

For the day, the index lost 8.54 points or 0.52 percent to finish at 1,621.14 after trading between 1,619.71 and 1,631.31.

Among the actives, Axiata shed 0.40 percent, while Celcomdigi slipped 0.27 percent, Genting and Maxis both slumped 0.84 percent, Genting Malaysia lost 0.39 percent, IHH Healthcare stumbled 0.95 percent, IOI Corporation tanked 1.80 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong added 0.19 percent, Maybank collected 0.20 percent, MISC sank 0.47 percent, MRDIY climbed 1.00 percent, Petronas Chemicals surrendered 1.79 percent, PPB Group skidded 0.82 percent, Press Metal plummeted 3.88 percent, Public Bank dropped 0.48 percent, QL Resources rose 0.15 percent, RHB Capital eased 0.18 percent, Sime Darby fell 0.38 percent, SD Guthrie was down 0.22 percent, Sunway retreated 1.17 percent, Telekom Malaysia declined 1.00 percent, Tenaga Nasional slid 0.28 percent, YTL Corporation tumbled 1.65 percent, YTL Power plunged 2.04 percent and CIMB Group was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is brutal as the major averages opened deep in the red on Wednesday and only moved lower as the day progressed, ending near session lows.

The Dow plummeted 504.22 points or 1.25 percent to finish at 39,853.87, while the NASDAQ plunged 654.94 points or 3.64 percent to close at 17,342.41 and the S&P 500 tumbled 128.61 points or 2.31 percent to end at 5,427.13.

The sell-off on Wall Street came amid a negative reaction to disappointing corporate earnings news from companies like Tesla (TSLA) and Alphabet (GOOGL).

In economic news, the Commerce Department unexpectedly reported a continued decrease in new home sales in the U.S. in June.

Oil prices moved higher on Wednesday after data showed an unexpected drop in U.S. crude oil inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended up $0.63 or 0.81 percent at $77.59 a barrel, snapping a three-day losing streak.