The Malaysian stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days, since the end of the two-day losing streak in which it had retreated more than a dozen points or 0.8 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index finished just above the 1,525-point plateau, and now traders are looking for a mild recovery at the opening of trade on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets remains upbeat on continued solid earnings news. Technology stocks and financials are expected to provide support, along with the oil companies - while property stocks are likely to see mild contraction. The European and U.S. markets finished mostly higher, and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.
The KLCI finished slightly lower on Thursday as gains from the financial shares were offset by selling pressure from the industrial issues and plantation stocks.
For the day, the index eased 4.69 points or 0.31 percent to finish at 1,526.33 after trading between 1,526.33 and 1,535.09. Volume was 1.373 billion shares worth 1.536 billion ringgit. There were 452 gainers and 354 decliners, with 285 stocks finishing unchanged.
Among the actives, Petronas Chemical, Digi.com and BAT all finished lower, while Maybank was unchanged and CIMB Holdings, Sime Darby and Genting ended higher.
In economic news, Malaysia's unemployment rate decreased in February, the Department of Statistics said on Thursday. The jobless rate declined to 2.9 percent in February from 3.4 percent in January, with the number of jobless persons falling 15.7 percent to 355,700. At the same time, the number of employed persons dropped 0.9 percent month-on-month to 12.04 million.
The lead from Wall Street is positive as stocks saw some further upside during trading on Thursday after staging a substantial rally in the previous session. The markets once again benefited from upbeat earnings news, although some disappointing economic data helped to limit the upside going into the long weekend.
The major averages moved higher going into the close, ending near their best levels of the day. The Dow rose 52.45 points or 0.4 percent to 12,505.99, the NASDAQ climbed 17.56 points or 0.6 percent to 2,820.16 and the S&P 500 advanced 7.02 points or 0.5 percent at 1,337.38. The major averages all moved higher for the holiday-shortened week, with the Dow ending the day at a nearly three-year closing high. The Dow and the S&P 500 both rose 1.3 percent for the week, while the NASDAQ jumped 2 percent.
The strength was partly due to the release of much better than expected quarterly results from Apple (AAPL), with the iPad and iPhone maker rising by 2.4 percent. Apple reported second quarter earnings of $6.40 per share on net sales of $24.67 billion compared to earnings of $3.33 per share on net sales of $13.50 billion in the year-ago quarter. Analysts had expected the company to earn $5.36 per share on $23.34 billion in net sales.
Insurance giant and Dow component Travelers (TRV) also turned in a strong performance on the day after reporting stronger than expected first quarter earnings growth. Honeywell (HON), Qualcomm (QCOM), and DuPont (DD) also moved higher in reaction to their quarterly results.
Meanwhile, shares of General Electric (GE) ended the day lower even though the company reported first quarter adjusted earnings of $0.33 per share on revenues of $38.45 billion compared to analyst estimates for earnings of $0.28 per share on revenues of $34.64 billion. GE also raised its quarterly dividend by $0.01 to $0.15 per share effective in the third quarter.
However, disappointing economic data also helped to limit the upside for the markets, with the Labor Department releasing a report showing a smaller than expected drop in weekly jobless claims. Also, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve released a separate report showing a much bigger than expected slowdown in the pace of growth in regional manufacturing activity in April.
\
HAPPY TRADING
No comments:
Post a Comment