KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia finished higher on Monday, amid advances in regional bourses while the ringgit fell to a three-week low against the US dollar.
The FBM KLCI added 5.32 points or 0.33% to close at 1,635.29 points after moving between an intraday high of 1,637.29 and a low of 1,628.12.
Daily gainers for Bursa Malaysia at 548 counters outweighed the losers at 476 counters, while 529 remained unchanged. Turnover stood at 2.8 billion shares valued at RM2.74bil.
The top gainer on Bursa Malaysia was PETRONAS Dagangan, which gained 48 sen, or 2.68% to RM18.42.
PPB Group rose 40 sen to RM14.80, Hong Leong Industries added 38 sen to RM13.80 and Quality Concrete climbed 19 sen to RM1.22.
On the other hand, the top decliner was Dutch Lady
, which lost 64 sen, or 1.99% to RM31.46. F&N fell 52 sen to RM31.28, Tenaga Nasional lost 30 sen to RM13.98 and Hong Leong Bank declined 28 sen to RM21.
Reuters reported that most Asian currencies fell on Monday, with the Malaysian ringgit and the Indonesian rupiah sliding the most.
Earlier in the day, the Malaysian ringgit weakened as much as 1.6% to 4.282 per U.S. dollar, its lowest since Sept 17.
The local currency fell by 1.43% to 4.2800 against the US dollar and decreased by 0.9% to 3.2818 against the Singapore dollar.
Around the region, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.8%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed up 1.6%, South Korea’s Kospi advanced 1.58%, China’s CSI 300 index surged 8.48% and Shanghai Composite Index jumped 8.06%.
