Ahead of Thursday's holiday for Thaipusam, the Malaysia stock market had ended the two-day slide in which it had fallen more than 20 points or 1.3 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now rests just above the 1,580-point plateau although it's likely to head south again on Friday as it catches up on missed negative sentiment.
The global forecast for the Asian calls for a technical rebound after heavy losses and highly speculative trading in the previous session. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The KLCI finished modestly higher on Wednesday following mixed performances from the financial shares, glove makers and telecoms.
For the day, the index rose 5.31 points or 0.34 percent to finish at 1,580.62 after trading between 1,580.37 and 1,593.08. Volume was 5.641 billion shares worth 4.984 billion ringgit. There were 614 gainers and 525 decliners.
Among the actives, Telekom Malaysia surged 4.84 percent, while IHH Healthcare soared 3.96 percent, Genting Malaysia spiked 2.94 percent, Axiata accelerated 2.77 percent, RHB Capital plummeted 2.46 percent, Press Metal plunged 2.06 percent, MISC rallied 1.94 percent, Hartalega Holdings tanked 1.93 percent, CIMB Group jumped 1.81 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong tumbled 1.62 percent, Petronas Chemicals climbed 1.48 percent, Sime Darby Plantations skidded 1.41 percent, Supermax retreated 1.35 percent, Public Bank declined 0.91 percent, Sime Darby gathered 0.90 percent, Tenaga Nasional perked 0.82 percent, Maybank collected 0.64 percent, Genting advanced 0.50 percent, PPB Group added 0.32 percent, Dialog Group dropped 0.32 percent, Digi.com fell 0.25 percent, Hong Leong Bank gained 0.23 percent, Maxis rose 0.20 percent, Top Glove was up 0.16 percent and Petronas Dagangan and IOI Corporation were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is solid as stocks opened higher on Thursday and remained in the green throughout the session after two days of weakness.
The Dow climbed 300.19 points or 0.99 percent to finish at 30,603.36, while the NASDAQ gained 66.56 points or 0.50 percent to end at 13,337.16 and the S&P 500 added 36.61 points or 0.98 percent to close at 3,787.38.
The early rally on Wall Street followed a report from the Labor Department showing a bigger than expected drop in first-time claims for U.S. jobless benefits last week.
Also, the Commerce Department said economic growth matched estimates in the fourth quarter of 2020, and also that new home sales in the U.S. rebounded in December after falling in four consecutive months.
On the corporate scene, shares of Apple (AAPL) and Tesla (TSLA) slumped after disappointing earnings news, while heavily shorted stocks like GameStop (GME), AMC Entertainment (AMC) and Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) gave back ground after skyrocketing in the previous session.
Crude oil futures settled lower on Thursday on worries about the outlook for energy demand due to rising coronavirus cases, tighter lockdown restrictions and delays in vaccine supplies. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March sank $0.51 or 1 percent at $52.34 a barrel.
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