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Oil prices fell over a percentage point on Friday as traders estimated that the threat of a disruption to world crude supplies from Saudi Arabia-led air strikes in Yemen was low.
Goldman Sachs said in an overnight note that the strikes in Yemen would have little effect on oil supplies as the country was only a small crude exporter and tankers could avoid passing its waters to reach their ports of destination.
Internationally traded Brent crude futures were trading at $58.44 a barrel at 0211 GMT, down 75 cents from their last settlement. U.S. crude was down 88 cents at $50.55 a barrel.
Blue chips got off to a weak start on Friday after the lacklustre overnight close on Wall Street, with Petronas Dagangan and UMW weighing on the FBM KLCI.
At 9.21am, the KLCI was down 3.14 points or 0.17% to 1,815.28. Turnover was 243.71 million shares valued at RM107.94mil. There were 170 gainers, 108 losers and 198 counters unchanged.
JF Apex Research said following the lacklustre performance in the US, we expect the KLCI to remain sideways below the resistance of 1,830.
Meanwhile, foreign funds were net sellers until March 26 at about RM800mil but this was a vast improvement from the RM1.9bil net outflow in the first half of the month, says BIMB Securities Research.
BAT was the top loser, down RM1.18 to RM68.20 while PetDag was down 10 sen to RM19.50 while down eight sen each were UMW and RHB Cap to RM10.80 and RM7.91.
Asian stocks crawled higher on Friday as upbeat U.S. economic data helped revive some risk appetite lost following air strikes on Houthi militants in Yemen, while the dollar rebounded.
Crude oil prices were slightly lower on the dollar's bounce after surging overnight on the escalating conflict in Yemen.
The euro was flat at $1.0883, knocked off an overnight high of $1.1052 after the encouraging U.S. data boosted the dollar.
The dollar stood was at 119.17 yen after pulling back from a five-week trough of 118.33 struck overnight against the yen, a safe-haven currency that attracts bids in times of geopolitical tension.
U.S. crude was down 1 percent at $50.87 a barrel after rallying 4.5 percent overnight.
After failed attempts at a rebound, U.S. stocks ended Thursday’s choppy session lower, declining for the fourth consecutive session.
The S&P 500 SPX, -0.24% ended 4.90 points, or 0.2% lower at 2,056.15 with eight of its 10 sectors closing in the red. Technology stocks which took a beating on Wednesday rebounded, but modest gains weren't enough to lift the markets.
The dollar lost ground against the yen Thursday, but traded higher against the euro after falling for most of the past week.
The dollar USDJPY, +0.02% was down at ¥119.20 from ¥119.50 late Tuesday.
The euro EURUSD, +0.02% bought $1.0875, down from $1.0971 late Wednesday in New York, after gaining ground earlier Thursday against the dollar.
The ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY, -0.01% which gauges the dollar’s strength against six other currencies, was flat at 97.4040.
