KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended higher on Wednesday on bargain-hunting following yesterday's sell-off.

       At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was up 6.85 points, or 0.42% to 1,515.76 with banking counters leading the gains.

       Turnover stood at 2.36 billion shares valued at RM1.84bil. There were 618 gainers, 254 losers and 407 counters traded unchanged on the Bursa Malaysia.

       According to data on Bursa Malaysia, foreign investors continued to buy into local stocks on Tuesday, acquiring RM89mil worth of equities.

       Local institutions and retailers sold equities worth RM63mil and RM26mil respectively.

       Leading the mover on the index was Maybank, adding seven sen to RM8.30, pushing the index higher by 1.2526 points.

       Press Metal closed seven sen higher at RM6.07, adding 0.8517 points to the index while Hartalega rose 15 sen to RM5.49 nudging the index up by 0.7745 points. Public Bank added two sen to RM4.20, lifting the index higher by 0.5848.

       Sime Darby Plantation fell six sen to RM3.82, IOI Corp eased four sen to RM3.80, Maxis lost four sen to RM4.25 and Axiata declined four sen to RM3.67.

       On the broader market, PMB Technology jumped 72 sen to RM14, KESM rose 60 sen to RM10.80 and Dutch Lady gained 58 sen to RM32.60.

       Meanwhile, the ringgit was quoted at 4.1925, down 0.07% against the US dollar.

       Brent crude was last traded at US$88.66 per barrel while US crude traded at US$85.81 a barrel.

       Elsewhere in the region, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.44%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.19%, South Korea’s Kospi closed down 0.41% and China’s CSI300 rose 0.72%.