Soft Start Anticipated For Malaysia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, shedding almost 30 points or 1.9 percent along the way. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just beneath the 1,560-point plateau and it's expected to open under pressure again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak, with oil and technology stocks expected to lead the way lower. The European and U.S. markets were mostly lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit. The KLCI finished sharply lower on Monday following losses from the industrials and plantations, while the financials and telecoms were mixed. For the day, the index dropped 14.76 points or 0.94 percent to finish at the daily low of 1,558.97 after peaking at 1,573.31. Among the actives, 99 Speed Mart Retail shed 0.45 percent, while Axiata skidded 1.34 percent, Celcomdigi gained 0.53 percent, CIMB Group rose 0.25 percent, Gamuda tumbled 3.10 percent, IHH Healthcare and Maxis both added 0.56 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong fell 0.39 percent, Maybank slid 0.38 percent, MISC gathered 0.14 percent, MRDIY dropped 1.18 percent, Nestle Malaysia perked 0.02 percent, Petronas Chemicals lost 0.43 percent, PPB Group declined 1.66 percent, Press Metal slumped 1.39 percent, Public Bank climbed 1.15 percent, QL Resources dipped 0.22 percent, Sime Darby sank 0.46 percent, SD Guthrie stumbled 4.49 percent, Sunway tanked 6.59 percent, Telekom Malaysia advanced 0.77 percent, Tenaga Nasional retreated 2.33 percent, YTL Corporation plunged 8.96 percent, YTL Power plummeted 10.80 percent and IOI Corporation, RHB Bank and Hong Leong Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is pretty awful as the major averages opened under water on Monday. The Dow managed to climb into positive territory, but the NASDAQ and S&P 500 finished with heavy losses.

The Dow advanced 289.33 points or 0.65 percent to finish at 44,713.58, while the NASDAQ plummeted 612.47 points or 3.07 percent to close at 19,341.83 and the S&P 500 sank 88.96 points or 1.46 percent to end at 6,012.28.

The sell-off On Wall Street came amid substantial weakness among technology stocks, with AI darling and sector leader Nvidia (NVDA) leading the way lower. The plunge by Nvidia comes after Chinese startup DeepSeek's AI Assistant overtook rival ChatGPT to become the top-rated free application available on Apple's App Store in the United States.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates also weighed on Wall Street ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting this week.

While the Fed is almost universally expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders are likely to pay close attention to the accompanying statement for clues about the outlook for rates. Recent economic data has led to concerns about the Fed leaving rates on hold for a prolonged period.

Oil prices fell sharply on Monday amid concerns about tariff threats and uncertainty about U.S. trade policy. Also, weak manufacturing data from China has raised concerns about the outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March closed down $1.49 or 2 percent at $73.17 a barrel.