Malaysia Stock Market May Extend Thursday’s Losses

The Malaysia stock market headed south again on Thursday, one day after ending the four-day slide in which it had dropped more than 25 points or 1.7 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just above the 1,600-point plateau, although it may give up that support on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KLCI finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares, telecoms, industrials and plantation stocks.

For the day, the index lost 10.82 points or 0.67 percent to finish at 1,600.68 after trading between 1,598.64 and 1,615.84.

Among the actives, Celcomdigi jumped 1.84 percent, while Genting fell 0.53 percent, IHH Healthcare rose 0.42 percent, IOI Corporation dropped 1.00 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong gained 0.54 percent, Maxis tanked 3.03 percent, Maybank skidded 1.15 percent, MISC eased 0.13 percent, MRDIY stumbled 1.87 percent, Nestle Malaysia slid 0.40 percent, Petronas Chemicals and Hong Leong Financial both were down 0.22 percent, PPB Group dipped 0.28 percent, Press Metal plummeted 4.14 percent, QL Resources added 0.62 percent, RHB Bank shed 0.78 percent, Sime Darby retreated 1.75 percent, SD Guthrie plunged 3.19 percent, Sunway sank 0.86 percent, Telekom Malaysia slumped 1.41 percent, Tenaga Nasional lost 0.69 percent, YTL Corporation tumbled 1.94 percent, YTL Power declined 1.54 percent and Axiata, Genting Malaysia, CIMB Group, Public Bank and Petronas Dagangan were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened flat on Thursday but quickly fell into the red and stayed that way, ending near session lows.

The Dow dropped 207.33 points or 0.47 percent to finish at 43,750.86, while the NASDAQ slumped 123.07 points or 0.64 percent to close at 19,107.65 and the S&P 500 sank 36.21 points or 0.60 percent to end at 5,949.17.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street late in the session came after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank does not “need to be in a hurry to lower rates” due to the strength of the economy.

Powell’s remarks came as the latest batch of U.S. economy data generated some uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates after the Labor Department said first-time claims for U.S. jobless benefits unexpectedly edged lower last week.

While the Fed is still widely expected to lower interest rates by a quarter point next month, there is some concern that sticky inflation will lead the central bank to slow the pace of its rate cuts in early 2025.

Oil futures settled higher on Thursday, supported by data showing a drop in gasoline stockpiles. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December closed up $0.27 or about 0.4 percent at $68.70 a barrel.

Closer to home, Malaysia will see Q3 numbers for current account and gross domestic product later today; in Q2, the current account surplus was MYR300 billion, while GDP expanded 5.9 percent on year.