The Malaysia stock market on Friday snapped the four-day winning streak in which it had gained almost 15 points or 0.9 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now rests just above the 1,625-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start again on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian is soft on lingering bond yield concerns, although technology and oil stocks may offer support. 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 lower on Friday following mixed performances from the financial, plantations and telecoms.
For the day, the index eased 1.80 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 1,626.19 after trading between 1,615.16 and 1,631.04. Volume was 9.041 billion shares worth 5.795 billion ringgit. There were 787 decliners and 347 gainers.
Among the actives, while Axiata climbed 1.32 percent, CIMB Group collected 0.66 percent, Dialog Group tumbled 1.86 percent, Digi.com jumped 1.63 percent, Genting advanced 0.73 percent, Genting Malaysia plunged 3.34 percent, Hartalega Holdings eased 0.10 percent, IHH Healthcare spiked 2.59 percent, IOI Corporation gained 0.47 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong rallied 2.09 percent, Maybank was up 0.12 percent, Maxis soared 2.59 percent, MISC skidded 1.58 percent, Petronas Chemicals rose 0.24 percent, PPB Group shed 0.85 percent, Press Metal plummeted 3.35 percent, Public Bank dropped 1.17 percent, Sime Darby skyrocketed 5.44 percent, Sime Darby Plantations lost 0.61 percent, Supermax accelerated 2.13 percent, Telekom Malaysia sank 1.40 percent, Tenaga Nasional tanked 2.58 percent, Top Glove surged 2.85 percent and RHB Capital was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street continues to be inconsistent, with only the tech-heavy NASDAQ moving higher on Friday.
The Dow tumbled 234.33 points or 0.71 percent to finish at 32,627.97, while the NASDAQ jumped 99.07 points or 0.76 percent to end at 13,215.24 and the S&P eased 2.36 points or 0.06 percent to close at 3,913.10. For the week, the Dow fell 0.5 percent, the NASDAQ and S&P both slid 0.8 percent.
The rebound by the NASDAQ came as traders look to pick up technology stocks at reduced levels following the 3 percent nosedive by the tech-heavy index on Thursday.
Traders also kept a close eye on activity in the bond market after a spike in treasury yields on Thursday, although yields spent much of the session lingering near the unchanged line.
Financial stocks also moved to the downside after the Federal Reserve said a temporary change to the supplementary leverage ratio, or SLR, for depository institutions will expire as scheduled at the end of this month.
Crude oil futures closed higher on Friday, rebounding after five successive days of losses, but still ended with a sharp weekly loss. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended up $1.42 or 2.4 percent at $61.42 a barrel.
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