KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia endured a choppy trading session before closing marginally higher on Wednesday amid the lack of catalysts.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI closed 1.20 points, or 0.07% higher at 1,686.82. The benchmark index opened 0.64 of-a-point lower at 1,684.98 this morning. It traded within a narrow range of 4.25 points between an intra-day high of 1,688.33 and a low of 1,684.08 today.
Turnover increased to 3.16 billion shares valued at RM2.5bil. There were 532 gainers, 328 losers and 397 counters traded unchanged on the Bursa Malaysia.
In today’s session, 18 of the KLCI-component stocks were traded higher while nine fell.
Gainers in the FBM KLCI component stocks were led by Petronas Chemicals, which contributed 1.533 points to the index, Press Metal
contributed 0.84 to the index while Petronas Gas lifted the index by 0.551.
Petronas Chemicals closed 11 sen higher to RM9.30, Press Metal rose 12 sen to RM4.43 and Petronas Gas closed 16 sen to RM17.88.
Leading the top gainers on Bursa Malaysia, British American Tobacco rose RM1.26 to RM34.36, Hengyuan increased 33 sen to RM6.25 and Ayer accumulated 30 sen to RM4.50.
RHB Bank and Panasonic Manufacturing ended the day among the top losers, declining 17 sen to RM5.54 and 14 sen to RM37.96 respectively.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was quoted at 4.0935, down 0.4% against the US dollar at 5.30pm.
Spot gold was down 0.16% to US$1,285.92 per ounce.
Brent crude was last traded at US$65.60 per barrel while US crude traded at US$56.10 per barrel.
Elsewhere in the region, china stocks climbed to nine-month closing highs, bolstered by hopes Beijing would pursue more stimulus this year.
The blue-chip CSI300 index rose 0.8% to 3,848.09, its highest close since May 23, 2018, while the Shanghai Composite Index closed up 1.6% at 3,102.10 points, its highest close since June 7, 2018, Reuters reported.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.3% to 29,037.60, while the China Enterprises Index gained 0.1% to 11,592.03 points.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 shed 0.6% to 21,596.81, with support seen at its 25-day moving average around 21,177 while South Korea Kospi index closed down 3.63 points, or 0.17%, to 2,175.60 points.
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