KLCI up 13 points, ringgit strengthens below RM4.40

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed higher on Wednesday in sync with regional markets, while ringgit strengthened against the US dollar.

The ringgit was quoted at 4.3955 against the greenback, appreciating 0.76%, the most in over 1-week.

The local currency was down 0.15% against the euro at 4.6765. It fell 0.03% against the pound sterling at 5.4383 and rose 0.19% against the Singapore dollar at 3.2607.

The FBM KLCI closed up 13.05 points, or 0.89% at 1,483.17, its intraday high.

The market was optimistic with 532 gainers compared with 381 decliners. Trading volume stood at 2.51bil shares valued at RM1.9bil.

Nestle was the top gainer on Bursa Malaysia, rising 90 sen to RM138.30, followed by Malaysian Pacific Industries, which rose 72 sen to RM30.70 and Hextar Technologies, which gained 70 sen to RM13.72.

KESM lost 27 sen to RM7.23, F&N eased 12 sen to RM22, Time Dotcom fell 12 sen to RM5.08 and Can-One declined 11 sen to RM3.31.

Top Glove Corp, which posted a net loss of RM168.24mil in the first quarter ended Nov 30 (1Q), closed flat at 78.5 sen with 63.05 million shares traded.

Meanwhile, US West Texas Intermediate crude rose nine cents to US$75.48 and Brent climbed six cents to US$80.74 per barrel.

Among the key regional markets:

Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed up 0.72% to 28,156.21;

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.39% to 19,673.45;

Shanghai Composite Index closed flat at 3,176.53;

Taiwan’s Taiex advanced 1.49% to 14,739.36;

South Korea’s Kospi gained 1.13% to 2,399.25 and;

Singapore’s Straits Times Index rose 0.22% to 3,278.57points