The Malaysia stock market on Friday halted the six-day losing streak in which it had fallen more than 40 points or 2.5 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now rests just above the 1,595-point plateau although it may spin its wheels on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on concerns about the coronavirus and uncertainty about additional stimulus. The European markets were slightly lower and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The KLCI finished slightly higher on Friday as gains from the glove makers were capped by weakness from the financials and plantations.
For the day, the index rose 1.94 points or 0.12 percent to finish at 1,596.74 after trading between 1,595.02 and 1,605.70. Volume was 6.634 billion shares worth 4.810 billion ringgit. There were 586 gainers and 535 decliners.
Among the actives, Supermax surged 6.87 percent, while Hartalega Holdings soared 4.41 percent, Top Glove spiked 3.82 percent, Sime Darby plummeted 3.42 percent, Axiata plunged 3.35 percent, Maxis tanked 2.38 percent, Genting tumbled 1.96 percent, IHH Healthcare skidded 1.89 percent, Telekom Malaysia rallied 1.69 percent, Dialog Group jumped 1.24 percent, MISC sank 1.08 percent, Tenaga Nasional dropped 1.01 percent, Genting Malaysia climbed 0.84 percent, Maybank shed 0.62 percent, CIMB Group and Digi.com both lost 0.50 percent, Public Bank collected 0.46 percent, Press Metal and IOI Corporation both fell 0.23 percent, RHB Capital slid 0.19 percent, PPB Group rose 0.11 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong eased 0.09 percent and Petronas Chemicals and Sime Darby Plantations were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is murky as stocks opened sharply lower on Friday but rebounded to finish mixed and little changed.
The Dow shed 179.03 points or 0.57 percent to finish at 30,996.98, while the NASDAQ rose 12.15 points or 0.09 percent to end at 13,543.06 and the S&P 500 fell 11.60 points or 0.30 percent to close at 3,841.47. For the week, the Dow added 0.6 percent, the NASDAQ jumped 4.2 percent and the S&P rose 1.9 percent.
The lower open on Wall Street came on profit taking following recent gains, as well as uncertainty about President Joe Biden's proposed $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.
The negative sentiment may have been partly offset by a report from the National Association of Realtors showing an unexpected rebound in existing home sales in December.
Crude oil prices slid on Friday after data showed a rise in U.S. crude inventories in the week ended January 15. Rising coronavirus cases and lockdown measures also raised concerns about the outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures sank $0.86 or 1.6 percent at $52.27 a barrel and 0.2 percent for the week.
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