KUALA LUMPUR: Asian stocks had another good session on Wednesday as investors pinned their hopes that Chinese stimulus measures would help to cushion the impact of the tariffs conflict.
Bursa Malaysia retraced much of the losses it had seen in the previous session as its regional peers rose for a second straight session.
Shanghai's Composite Index rose 1.1% to 2,730.85 while the blue chip CSI 300 added 1.3% to 3.312.48.
Elsewhere, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.2% to 27,407, Japan's Nikkei advanced 1.1% to 23,672.52 and Taiwan's Taiex rose 0.9% to 10,857.27.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was up 7.77 points to 1,800.71. Total volume was 2.01 billion shares valued at RM1.9bil. There were 502 gainers versus 368 decliners and 374 counters unchanged.
As banking stocks lifted the index, Hong Leong Bank emerged the leading gainer with a 46 sen increase to RM20.66.
CIMB grew eight sen to RM6.12 and Public Bank lifted 16 sen to RM25.06.
While there were few decliners on the 30-stock index, Genting Malaysia fell five sen to RM4.82, TNB dropped four sen to RM15.78 and MISC trimmed three sen to RM5.94.
Among top gainers on the stock exchange UMW rose 27 sen to RM5.37 while Padini addd 20 sen to RM5.90 and Top Glove put on 20 sen to RM10.70.
Some stocks that pulled back included Tasek losing 20 sen to RM6.30, MPI dropping 12 sen to RM12.76 and Genting Plantation sliding 11 sen to RM9.36.
Oil prices edged higher on worries over US sanction on Iran even as US inventories grew. WTI crude rose four cents to US$69.89 a barrel but Brent crude slipped five cents to US$78.98 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit was little changed against the US dollar at 4.1438. It was also unmoved against the SIngapore dollar at 3.0269 but slid 0.4% against the pound sterling at 5.4689.
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