(RTTNews) - The Malaysian stock market on Thursday ended the three-day losing streak that cost it more than 13 points or 1.5 percent in the process. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index remained below support at 900 points, and analysts expect the market to remain under that level when the market kicks off trade on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets continues to paint a gloomy picture, thanks to continued weak economic news and some mixed corporate data. The European markets finished in mixed fashion but little changed overall, while the U.S. markets finished sharply lower, with the Dow closing at a six-year low. After a bit of a breather on Thursday, the Asian markets are expected to resume their downward movement on Friday.

The KLCI finished modestly higher on Thursday, as weakness among the plantation stocks was largely offset by gains in the financial sector and among the industrial issues.

For the day, the index added 4.36 points or 0.49 percent to close at 899.59 after trading between 895.51 and 900.84. Volume was 334.989 million shares worth 595.489 million ringgit. There were 251 decliners and 211 gainers, with 203 stocks finishing unchanged. Among the top gainers, Malayan Banking was up 1.8 percent and Sime Darby added 0.9 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is firmly negative as stocks show a notable move to the downside in late day trading on Thursday after showing a lack of direction for much of the trading session. The major averages all moved firmly into negative territory, with the Dow ending the session at its worst closing level since October of 2002. The choppy trading seen for much of the session came as traders digested another slew of economic news along with some mixed corporate news.

On the economic front, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve said its index of activity in the manufacturing sector fell to a negative 41.3 in February, its lowest reading since October of 1990. Economists expected the index to edge down to a negative 25.0.

Separately, a report from the Labor Department showed that initial jobless claims for the week ended February 14th came in at 627,000, unchanged from the revised figure for the previous week and moderately higher than the 620,000 that was expected by analysts. Producer prices increased by much more than economists had been expecting in the month of January, according to a separate report released by the Labor Department, with the increase partly due to a modest rebound in energy prices.

Meanwhile, communication services provider Sprint Nextel (S) moved sharply higher after reporting a smaller than expected fourth quarter loss and saying it expects that its total subscriber losses will improve in 2009. On the other hand, Dow component Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) showed a steep decline after the PC maker reported a notable decrease in fourth quarter earnings and provided disappointing guidance.

In other news, the Securities and Exchange Commission named Robert Khuzami to replace Linda Thomsen as the organization’s Director of the Division of Enforcement. The announcement came less than two weeks after Thomsen announced her resignation in the midst of a flood of scandals that occurred under her watch, including the alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme operated by Bernard Madoff.

The major averages staged a failed recovery attempt going into the close, ending the session sharply lower. The Dow closed down 89.68 points or 1.2 percent at 7,465.95, the Nasdaq closed down 25.15 points or 1.7 percent at 1,442.82 and the S&P 500 closed down 9.48 points or 1.2 percent at 778.94.

In economic news, Malaysia will on Friday provide consumer price index numbers for January and foreign reserves data for the period ending February 13. Inflation is expected to climb 4.1 percent on year, easing slightly from the 4.4 percent annual expansion in December. Foreign reserves were at $91.34 billion in the previous week.

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