KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia rebounded from a huge sell-off in the previous session, as investors rushed to buy the battered shares.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI ended up 13.91 points, or 0.89% to 1,571.32, its intraday high.
Market breadth turned positive as gainers overpowered the decliners on a ratio of 732-to-263 stocks. About 2.59 billion shares, valued at RM2.71bil, changed hands.
Foreign investors continued to be net buyers of local equities, with a net buying of RM272mil on Tuesday.
Local institutions sold equities worth RM282mil while retailers acquired RM9mil.
Dealers said the previous session selloffs offered investors opportunities to buy on dips. They added that investors continued to watch the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting and Ukraine-Russia peace talks.
Investors are expecting the U.S. central bank to raise interest rates for the first time in three years by at least 25 basis points amid soaring prices.
The performance of the local bourse today was in line with its regional peers. MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 4.12%.
Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average added 1.64%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 9.09%, South Korea’s Kospi closed up 1.44% and China’s CSI300 index advanced 4.32% while the Shanghai Composite Index added 3.48%.
Meanwhile, the ringgit strengthened against the US dollar. The ringgit was quoted at 4.1978 against the US dollar, up 0.21%.
The local unit rose 0.04% to 5.4846 against the pound sterling, up 0.33% to the Euro at 4.6148 and fell 0.07% to the Singapore dollar at 3.0835.
On Bursa Malaysia, Malaysian Pacific Industries topped the gainers’ list, surging RM1.78 to RM31.56. Heineken added RM1.04 to RM21.70, PMB Technology gained 56 sen to RM16.84 and Bursa Malaysia rose 48 sen to RM6.87.
The biggest loser on the local bourse was Nestle, falling RM1 to RM135. Kuala Lumpur Kepong lost 36 sen to RM25.28 and Riverview fell 24 sen to RM3.26.
The most active stock was Dagang Nexchange, which added eight sen to RM1 with 142.7 million shares done.