The Malaysia stock market has finished lower in four straight sessions, giving up more than 10 points or 0.8 percent along the way. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now rests just above the 1,420-point plateau and it's expected to see little movement again on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian is mixed to lower on concerns over recession and the debt ceiling. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The KLCI finished slightly lower on Friday as losses from the financials and industrials were mitigated by support from the plantations and a mixed picture from the telecoms.
For the day, the index eased 2.26 points or 0.16 percent to finish at the daily low of 1,422.92 after trading as high as 1,429.92.
Among the actives, Dialog Group rallied 2.27 percent, while Digi.com jumped 1.36 percent, Genting skidded 1.08 percent, Genting Malaysia gained 0.37 percent, IHH Healthcare fell 0.51 percent, INARI declined 1.77 percent, IOI Corporation climbed 1.03 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong advanced 0.82 percent, Maxis retreated 1.59 percent, Maybank shed 0.57 percent, MISC stumbled 1.36 percent, MRDIY added 0.63 percent, Petronas Chemicals tumbled 1.82 percent, PPB Group slumped 1.58 percent, Press Metal sank 0.82 percent, Public Bank was sown 1.00 percent, RHB Capital lost 0.54 percent, Sime Darby dropped 0.93 percent, Sime Darby Plantations rose 0.22 percent, Telekom Malaysia slid 0.39 percent, Tenaga Nasional surged 4.07 percent and Axiata and CIMB Group were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened higher on Friday but quickly turned lower, spending the rest of the session in the red and finishing with mild losses.
The Dow dipped 8.88 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 33,300.62, while the NASDAQ sank 43.76 points or 0.35 percent to end at 12,284.74 and the S&P 500 eased 6.54 points or 0.16 percent to close at 4,124.08.
For the week, the Dow slumped 1.1 percent, the S&P fell 0.3 percent and but the NASDAQ rose 0.4 percent.
The early downturn on Wall Street followed the release of a report from the University of Michigan showing U.S. consumer sentiment deteriorated much more than anticipated in May.
Worries about the debt ceiling crisis also continued to hang over the markets, with the postponement of a meeting between President Joe Biden and top lawmakers adding to jitters about a potential default.
Crude oil prices fell Friday on the dollar's strength and worries about the outlook for energy demand. Fears of the U.S. falling into a recession and the impasse in debt ceiling talks boosted dollar's safe-haven appeal and hurt oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures fell $0.83 or 1.2 percent at $70.04 a barrel.
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