KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI rallied higher on Wednesday, breaching a technical resistance level of 1,730 points on the strength of the Genting counters and Public Bank.
Adding 8.09 points to 1,737.66 points, the local benchmark index rose higher than its 50-day simple moving average, albeit slightly, for the first time in nearly three months.
Turnover was 2.51 billion shares with a value of RM2.57bil. There were 527 advancers versus 327 decliners and 423 counters unchanged.
Genting gained 37 sen to RM9.08 while Genting Malaysia added 24 sen to RM5.64.
Heavyweight Public Bank also rose, gaining 16 sen to RM20.36, while Hong Leong Financial Group put on 50 sen to RM17.68.
Other notable gainers included Telekom Malaysia, which added 10 sen to RM6.15, RHB Bank, which advanced 15 sen to RM4.88 and YTL Corp, which rose six sen to RM1.23.
Counters that slid back on Wednesday included Tenaga Nasional, which fell six sen to RM15.42; Axiata, which dropped four sen to RM5.33; and Digi, which dropped two sen to RM4.82.
On the wider market, refiner Hengyuan surged 56 sen to RM12.46 while Carlsberg grew 52 sen to RM15.60.
Among laggards, Magni-Tech dropped 38 sen to RM5.63 on weak earnings results while Enra fell 20 sen to RM2.90 and Gamuda slipped 19 sen to RM4.71
Key regional markets were also largely in a bullish mood on Wednesday, even as oil prices advanced and investors looked ahead to Fed announcements of US monetary policy.
The Shanghai Composite index rose 22.85 points to 3,303.66 points as gains in consumer and transport stocks improved investor appetite.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng was up 428.22 points at 29,222.10 points.
Japan's Nikkei stock index finished 108.1 points lower on pressure from the rising yen.
South Korea's KOSPI stock index rose 19.55 points to a more than one-week closing high as President Moon Jae-in's visit to China was expected to mend relations following a row over Seoul's deployment of a US anti-missile system.
Taiwan's Taiex rose 27.42 points to 10,770.70 points while Singapore's Straits Times went against the regional tide and slipped 2.44 points to 3,463.10 points.
Oil markets moved higher after a larger-than-expected drawdown in US crude stockpiles drove prices. This comes after some profit-taking in the previous session when Brent crude rose above the US$65 mark.
Us light oil rose 54 cents to US$57.69 a barrel while Brent crude put on 76 cents to US$64.10 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit weakened 0.18% against the US dollar at 4.0860 and 0.11% against the Singapore dolar at 3.0208. It moved higher against the pound sterling at 5.4410.
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