The Malaysia stock market has moved lower in four straight sessions, slipping almost 15 points or 0.9 percent along the way. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just above the 1,630-point plateau although its due for support on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher, likely driven by the latest earnings news. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The KLCI finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares, plantation stocks, industrials and telecoms.
For the day, the index fell 9.30 points or 0.57 percent to finish at the daily low of 1,632.23 after trading as high as 1,643.08.
Among the actives, Celcomdigi dipped 0.28 percent, while CIMB Group and Telekom Malaysia both shed 0.61 percent, Genting lost 0.50 percent, Genting Malaysia skidded 0.87 percent, IHH Healthcare rallied 2.77 percent, Kuala Lumpur Kepong and Maybank both slid 0.38 percent, Maxis added 0.53 percent, MISC retreated 1.43 percent, MRDIY advanced 0.90 percent, Nestle Malaysia tumbled 1.82 percent, Petronas Chemicals tanked 3.01 percent, PPB Group declined 1.39 percent, Press Metal perked 0.21 percent, Public Bank and Hong Leong Bank both dropped 0.66 percent, QL Resources, Tenaga Nasional and SD Guthrie all fell 0.42 percent, RHB Bank sank 0.62 percent, Sunway slumped 0.89 percent, YTL Corporation plunged 4.05 percent, YTL Power plummeted 6.40 percent and Axiata, Petronas Dagangan, IOI Corporation, Sime Darby and Petronas Gas were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened mixed on Thursday and finished the same way.
The Dow dropped 140.59 points or 0.33 percent to finish at 42,374.36, while the NASDAQ climbed 138.83 points or 0.76 percent to close at 18,415.49 and the S&P 500 rose 12.44 points or 0.21 percent to end at 5,809.86.
The strength on the tech-heavy NASDAQ was spurred by strong quarterly earnings from the likes of Tesla (TSLA) and UPS (UPS).
On the other hand, the Dow was weighed by weak quarterly earnings news from IBM (IBM), Honeywell (HON) and Boeing (BA).
Oil prices fell on Thursday, extending losses from the previous session as concerns about excess supply and weak crude consumption in China weighed. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended down $0.58 or 0.8 percent at $70.19 a barrel.