KUALA LUMPUR: Lifted by buying interest in selected heavyweights, the FBM KLCI ended higher on Wednesday, snapping its losing streak.
The benchmark index closed up 11.84 points, or 0.8% at 1,488.80 with 14 of the FBM KLCI constituent counters closed higher.
The market was optimistic with 524 gainers compared with 468 decliners, with 4.71 billion shares worth RM4.41bil changing hands.
Leading the mover on the index was Tenaga Nasional, climbing 40 sen to RM9.42, pushing the index up by 3.47 points.
Nestle closed RM8.50 higher at RM138.90, adding 3.0056 points to the index while Public Bank rose nine sen to RM4.50 lifting the index up by 2.6342 points.
In the third quarter ended Sept 30, Public Bank posted a net profit of RM1.59bil compared with RM1.36bil in the same quarter last year. This was on the back of 3QFY22 revenue of RM5.5bil as compared with RM4.81bil in 3QFY21.
The group declared a second interim dividend of four sen per share, with entitlement date on Dec 15, 2022, and payable on Dec 23, 2022.
Other gainers on Bursa Malaysia include Malaysian Pacific Industries
, Heineken, IQ Group and Ralco Corp.
IQ Group and Ralco hit limit up, rising 30 each to RM1.04 and RM1.24 respectively.
Among the losers, Hengyuan fell 98 sen to RM3.57, Dutch Lady eased 52 sen to RM30.54 and Hong Leong Financial Group lost 48 sen to RM18.52.
Around the region, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares ex-Japan rose 1.39%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.21% lower at 27,968.99 while South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.61% to 2,472.53.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up 2.16%, at 18,597.23 while China’s CSI300 index climbed 0.12% to 3,853.04.
