KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI pared gains in the final hour of trading on Tuesday, but remained in positive territory.
At 5pm, the 30-stock index closed 4.19 points, or 0.27% higher at 1,548.60. The index hit an intraday high of 1,558.11 earlier.
There were 575 stocks advancing against 424 stocks declining while 408 counters were unchanged. Volume surged to 5.5 billion units, valued at RM2.78bil.
Dealers said buying interest today was interspersed with profit-taking and expected trading to remain volatile in the short term.
Nestle was the top gainer on Bursa Malaysia, jumping RM1.30
to RM132.80, followed by Petron Malaysia
, which added 69 sen to RM6.71, Hengyuan Refining, which gained 42 sen to RM7.40 and Press Metal rose 34 sen to RM5.38.
F&N lost 64 sen to RM21.28, Batu Kawan fell 38 sen to RM27.32 and Country Heights eased 19 sen to RM1.19.
Among the banks, Maybank declined one sen to RM8.95, Public Bank was unchanged at RM4.53, CIMB added two sen to RM5.06, RHB Bank gained six sen to RM5.85 and Hong Leong Bank rose eight sen to RM20.74.
Elsewhere in the region, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.42%, South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.92%, China’s Shanghai Composite index was up 0.65% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed up 3.27%.
