Little Movement Seen For Malaysia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market ticked lower again on Monday, one session after ending the five-day winning streak in which it had rallied more than 35 points or 2.2 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just beneath the 1,640-point plateau and it's likely to remain in that neighborhood again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower, with support from the technology shares likely to limit the downside. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The KLCI finished slightly higher on Monday as gains from the telecoms, financial shares and plantation stocks were capped by weakness from the industrial companies.

For the day, the index rose 3.03 points 0r 0.19 percent to finish at the daily high of 1,638.09 after trading as low as 1,629.93. Among the actives, 99 Speed Mart Retail slumped 1.71 percent, while Celcomdigi climbed 0.82 percent, CIMB Group eased 0.13 percent, Gamuda sank 0.55 percent, IHH Healthcare soared 2.71 percent, IOI Corporation perked 0.25 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong rallied 0.99 percent, Maxis fell 0.27 percent, Maybank was up 0.20 percent, MISC shed 0.54 percent, MRDIY and Tenaga Nasional both added 0.60 percent, Nestle Malaysia and Hong Leong Bank both gathered 0.29 percent, Petronas Chemicals tumbled 1.87 percent, Petronas Dagangan skidded 1.45 percent, Petronas Gas spiked 1.29 percent, PPB Group surged 2.94 percent, Press Metal gained 0.50 percent, Public Bank advanced 0.69 percent, RHB Bank collected 0.44 percent, Sime Darby retreated 1.80 percent, Sunway dropped 0.69 percent, Telekom Malaysia rose 0.42 percent, YTL Corporation declined 1.79 percent, YTL Power stumbled 2.78 percent and AMMB Holdings, Axiata, QL Resources and SD Guthrie were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened mixed on Monday and ultimately finished on opposite sides of the line and little changed,

The Dow shed 63.31 points or 0.14 percent to finish at 46,694.97, while the NASDAQ gained 161.16 points or 0.71 percent to end at a record 22,941.67 and the S&P 500 rose 24.49 points or 0.36 percent to close at 6,740.49, also a record.

The strength in the markets largely reflected a rally by semiconductor stocks, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor index surging by 2.9 percent to a record closing high.

Significant strength was also visible among gold and software stocks, while housing and commercial real estate stocks moved notably lower over the course of the session.

Meanwhile, traders continued to shrug off concerns about the economic impact of the ongoing government shutdown, which entered its sixth day amid little signs of progress toward a deal on a temporary spending bill.

Crude oil prices surged on Monday as OPEC's output increase for November turned out to be lower than expected and relieved concerns of oversupply. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was up $0.73 or 1.20 percent at $61.61 per barrel.