KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended firmer on Tuesday, with the FBM KLCI closing higher despite continued selling pressure in the broader market.
The FBM KLCI closed up 6.03 points, or 0.37%, at 1,630.60 after moving between an intraday high of 1,634.35 and a low of 1,624.47.
Losers exceeded gainers by 606 to 489, about 1.25 times, signalling continued selling pressure in the broader market. Turnover came to 3.94 billion shares valued at RM3.3bil.
Gainers included Nestle, which surged RM8.60 to RM120.20, F&N, which rose RM1.48 to RM36.36, Allianz, which added 40 sen to RM19.90, and Maybank, which gained 37 sen to RM10.34.
Among the losers were Tenaga Nasional, which slid 58 sen to RM12.74, PPB Group, which fell 48 sen to RM10.10, United Plantations, which lost 38 sen to RM28, and Chin Tek, which declined 20 sen to RM10.80.
Capital A jumped 63.27%, or 15.5 sen, to 40 sen on its first day of trading following a technical adjustment tied to the distribution of AirAsia X
(AAX) shares.
Genting Malaysia gave up its early gains, falling 10 sen, or 4.26%, to RM2.25 with 65.43 million shares traded.
Meanwhile, stock market data showed that foreign funds and local institutions were net buyers on Monday, acquiring RM58mil and RM12mil worth of equities on Bursa Malaysia, respectively. Retail investors were net sellers at RM70mil.
On the forex market, the ringgit was quoted at 4.1307, up 0.06% against the US dollar. It rose 0.22% to 3.1835 against the Singapore dollar.
Around the region, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index rose 0.42%. Key markets were mixed:
Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed flat at 49,303.45;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0.24% to 26,095.05;
China’s CSI 300 slipped 0.48% to 4,554.33;
Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.81% to 27,564.27;
South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.9% to 3,994.93;
Singapore’s Straits Times Index rose 0.26% to 4,537.96.
