KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia bucked the weaker key Asian markets to close higher on Wednesday as stronger export data and rising foreign reserves helped underpin investor sentiment.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was up 2.85 points or 0.16% to 1,772.48. Turnover was 2.21 billion shares valued at RM1.81bil. Gainers led losers 407 to 377 while 425 counters were unchanged.
The ringgit rose against the US dollar and Singapore unit but fell against the pound sterling and the euro.
It rose 0.45% to the US$ to 4.2410 and climbed 0.23% against the Simgapore dollar to 3.1373. However, it fell 0.41% to the pound at 5.5316 and shed 0.04% to the euro at 5.0660.
Hong Kong stocks fell on Wednesday, echoing declines in other global markets as rising tensions on the Korean peninsula prompted investors to take profits on this year's strong rally, Reuters reported,
The Hang Seng index fell 0.5% to 27,613.76, while the China Enterprises Index lost 0.6% to 11,128.77.
Reuters also reported China blue-chip share index ended slightly weaker on Wednesday but off the day's lows as strong gains in major state-owned firms helped offset rising North Korea tensions.
The CSI300 index fell 0.2% to 3,849.45, while the Shanghai Composite Index closed little changed at 3,385.39.
At Bursa Malaysia, Genting Malaysia rose 14 sen to RM5.96 and pushed the KLCI up 1.41 points. Genting Bhd
added six sen to RM9.84 while power giant Tenaga Nasional edged up two sen to RM14.40.
US light crude oil rose 11 cents to US$48.77 and Brent added 20 sen to RM53.58.
Petronas Chemicals gained nine sen to RM7.39 and nudged the KLCI up 1.22 points. Petronas Gas was flat at RM18.38 and Petronas Dagangan 10 sen lower at RM24.60.
Refiners Petron added 23 sen to RM9.40 and Hengyuan 13 sen to RM7.79. LNG carrier MISC fell 14 sen to RM7.31 and wi[ped out more than one point.
Among the banks, Maybank added five sen to RM9.4 and pusged the KLCI up 0.9 of a point, AmBank added three sen to RM4.32 and RHB Bank two sen to RM5.07 while Public Bank was flat at RM20.60 while CIMB shed one sen to RM6.75 and Hong Leong Bank lost six sen to RM15.40.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery retreated RM19 to RM2,748 per tonne. Sime Darby rose seven sen to RM9.07, KL Kepong and IOI Corp were flat at RM24.56 and RM4.53 while PPB Group lost 10 sen to RM16.70.
As for telcos, Digi advanced four sen to RM4.86, Maxis three sen higher to RM5.76, Telekom was flat at RM6.40 and Axiata shed six sen to RM4.99 on profit taking.
Meanwhile, China stocks eased after the recent rally in active trade, Sino Hua-Ann fell 1.5 sen to 19.5 sen while CSL and Xinghe lost one sen each to six sen and 5.5 sen.
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