Bursa Malaysia ends higher on hopes Fed will tone down hikes

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed up on Monday amid hopes that the Federal Reserve might be less aggressive about rate hikes, while investors await for overnight policy rate (OPR) announcement this week.

The FBM KLCI ended 13.07 points, or 0.9% to 1,460.38 at 5pm after hitting an intraday high of 1,468.41.

In the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 450 to 365, with 2.9 billion shares worth RM1.94bil changing hands.

On the external front, MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific shares ex-Japan rose 0.91%.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 1.78% to 27,587.46 while South Korea’s Kospi index closed up 1.11% to 2,293.61.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed down 1.18% to 14,687.02 and China’s CSI 300 index ended down 0.92% to 3,508.70 following weak economic data.

Meanwhile, the ringgit was quoted at 4.7292, down 0.09% against the US dollar.

On Bursa Malaysia, Hextar Technologies (Hextech) surged RM1.52 to a record of RM13.38. In the past one month, it has risen over 190%.

Hextech, in a reply to an unusual market activity (UMA) query, is not aware of any reason for the sharp rise in the price of its shares.

PETRONAS Dagangan rose 78 sen to RM21.68, Malaysian Pacific Industries rose 24 sen to RM24 and F&N gained 22 sen to RM20.54.

Among the losers, Texchem shed 42 sen to RM2.71, Batu Kawan eased 24 sen to RM21.02, Imaspro lost 22 sen to RM5.73 and Kuala Lumpur Kepong fell 14 sen to RM21.68.