The Malaysia stock market has moved higher in three straight sessions, gathering more than a dozen points or 0.8 percent along the way. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just beneath the 1,550-point plateau although it may spin its wheels on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets in negative, with continued pressure likely on the technology shares. 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 again on Friday following gains from the plantations, weakness from the telecoms and a mixed performance from the financial sector.
For the day, the index perked 2.81 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 1,547.57 after trading between 1,545.90 and 1,552.45.
Among the actives, AMMB Holdings sank 0.48 percent, while Celcomdigi retreated 1.22 percent, CIMB Group shed 0.46 percent, Dialog Group rallied 1.70 percent, Genting dropped 0.89 percent, Genting Malaysia tumbled 1.53 percent, IHH Healthcare added 0.49 percent, Inari Amertron plummeted 4.09 percent, IOI Corporation rose 0.25 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong improved 0.70 percent, Maybank slid 0.21 percent, MISC soared 2.30 percent, MRDIY plunged 2.01 percent, Petronas Chemicals eased 0.15 percent, PPB Group climbed 0.90 percent, Press Metal surged 3.03 percent, Public Bank collected 0.24 percent, QL Resources advanced 0.79 percent, Sime Darby gained 0.36 percent, Sime Darby Plantations jumped 1.13 percent, Telekom Malaysia lost 0.33 percent and Axiata, Tenaga Nasional, RHB Capital, Maxis and Petronas Gas were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is conflicted as the Dow opened higher on Friday and stayed that way, while the S&P and NASDAQ spent the entire session under water.
The Dow rallied 211.00 points or 0.56 percent to finish at 37,986.40, while the NASDAQ tumbled 319.49 points or 2.05 percent to end at 15,282.01 and the S&P 500 sank 43.89 points or 0.88 percent to close at 4,967.23.
For the week, the NASDAQ plummeted 5.5 percent, the S&P tumbled 3.1 percent and the Dow rose 0.1 percent.
The steep drop by the NASDAQ reflected heavy selling among shares of Netflix (NFLX) and AI darling Nvidia (NVDA). Reflecting the weakness in the sector, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dove by 4.1 percent to its lowest closing level since early February.
Banking stocks turned in a strong performance, driving the KBW Bank Index up by 2.9 percent. Interest rate-sensitive utilities stocks also moved notably higher amid a pullback by treasury yields, resulting in a 1.8 percent jump by the Dow Jones Utility Average.
Oil prices moved higher on Friday as geopolitical tensions rose following Israel's retaliatory attack on Iran. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended higher by $0.41 at $83.14 a barrel, although WTI crude futures shed about 3 percent in the week.
Market Analysis