(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market on Wednesday halted the two-day slide in which it had stumbled more than 25 points or 1.7 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now rests just beneath the 1,550-point plateau although it figures to head south again on Thursday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over the outlook for interest rates, especially among the tech shares. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.
The KLCI finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the glove makers, telecoms and plantations, while the financials were mixed and the entertainment companies were down.
For the day, the index added 6.05 points or 0.39 percent to finish at 1,547.95 after trading between 1,540.24 and 1,549.53. Volume was 4.489 billion shares worth 1.959 billion ringgit. There were 659 gainers and 346 decliners. Among the actives, Axiata rose 0.52 percent, while CIMB Group gathered 0.92 percent, Dialog Group accelerated 1.13 percent, Digi.com climbed 0.99 percent, Genting plunged 1.46 percent, Genting Malaysia plummeted 2.03 percent, Hartalega Holdings soared 4.17 percent, IHH Healthcare added 0.59 percent, INARI fell 0.25 percent, IOI Corporation spiked 1.32 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong gained 0.55 percent, Maybank eased 0.12 percent, Maxis advanced 0.67 percent, MISC lost 0.29 percent, MRDIY jumped 1.11 percent, PPB Group rallied 1.07 percent, Press Metal perked 0.35 percent, Public Bank collected 0.97 percent, RHB Capital dipped 0.18 percent, Sime Darby shed 0.43 percent, Sime Darby Plantations tanked 1.30 percent, Telekom Malaysia was up 0.37 percent, Tenaga Nasional sank 0.54 percent, Top Glove surged 4.72 percent and Petronas Chemicals was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened flat on Wednesday and hugged the unchanged line for most of the session before plummeting after the release of the FOMC minutes.
The Dow tumbled 392.54 points or 1.07 percent to finish at 36,407.54, while the NASDAQ plummeted 522.54 points or 3.34 percent to close at 15,100.17 and the S&P 500 tanked 92.96 points or 1.94 percent to end at 4,700.58.
The sell-off on Wall Street came as the Fed minutes seemed to have a more hawkish tone, raising concerns the central bank will be more aggressive than anticipated.
According to the minutes of the December 14-15 meeting, members of the Fed are preparing to begin reducing the size of the central bank's approximately $8.8 trillion balance sheet soon after raising interest rates.
Meanwhile, traders have largely shrugged off a report from payroll processor ADP showing much stronger than expected private sector job growth in the month of December.
Crude oil prices showed a notable advance Wednesday on optimism the Omicron variant of the coronavirus will not significantly impact global demand. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for February delivery jumped $0.86 or 1.1 percent to $77.85 a barrel.
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