Malaysia Stock Market May Test Support At 1,600 Points

(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the three-day winning streak in which it had gathered almost a dozen points or 0.7 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just above the 1,600-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower as sinking oil prices may be offset by interest rate concerns. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KLCI finished modestly lower on Tuesday as losses from the finance, energy, industrial and plantation companies were mitigated by support from the transportation stocks.

For the day, the index sank 12.51 points or 0.77 percent to finish at 1,604.07 after trading between 1,595.26 and 1,626.55.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened under water on Tuesday and stayed that way, although stocks came well off of their daily lows later in the day.

The Dow shed 157.86 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 52,231.89, while the NASDAQ sank 187.26 points or 0.74 percent to end at 25,065.88 and the S&P 500 lost 29.01 points or 0.38 percent to close at 7,520.93.

The weakness on Wall Street followed the release of closely watched Labor Department data showing that consumer prices increased 0.4 percent in October, more than the 0.3 percent that was expected.

The hotter-than-expected inflation data led to renewed concerns about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting next month. CME Group's FedWatch Tool currently suggests an 85.9 percent chance the Fed will raise rates by a quarter-point at its December meeting.

Stocks came off their daily lows later in the day thanks to continued downward pressure on crude oil prices - which tumbled again as concerns of U.S.-Iran re-escalation faded after U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to maintain a status quo in the U.S.-Iran crisis. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $0.97 or 1.12 percent at $85.88 per barrel.

Closer to home, Malaysia will release September numbers for unemployment later today; in August, the jobless rate was 2.9 percent.