KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 8 — The local stock market snapped a three-day losing streak to end higher today on bargain hunting.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) settled at 1,587.12, up 4.27 points after fluctuating between 1,576.96 and 1,594.91 throughout the day.

Dealers attributed the rebound to a late-afternoon rally in China and other regional bourses that prompted bargain hunting in the local market.

“Bargain hunters emerged at Bursa with investors nibbling selectively at value buys after several bearish sessions,” he said.

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In China, the Shanghai Composite Index surged 2.93 per cent to 3,170.57, despite the country’s imports data for August shrinking for a 10th consecutive month.

“A slump in China’s August imports raised fears of a more severe slowdown in the world’s second-biggest economy, but as players had priced it in, a rebound followed suit,” another dealer told Bernama.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index also rebounded, surging 3.28 per cent to 21,259.04, while Singapore’s Straits Times improved 1.12 per cent to 2,884.31.

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On Bursa Malaysia, gainers outpaced losers by 547 to 242 with 277 counters unchanged, 747 untraded and 18 others suspended.

Total volume rose to 2.01 billion units worth RM1.71 billion from yesterday’s 1.68 billion units worth RM1.53 billion.

The advancers in the FBM KLCI component stocks were led by Maybank, which rose 20 sen to RM8.58, followed by DiGi.com which added five sen to RM6.52 and British American which perked RM1.24 to RM61.26, while Sime Darby led the laggards, falling 17 sen to RM7.20.

Of the actives, The Media Shoppe added half-a-sen to 14.5 sen, AirAsia rose 7.0 sen to 99.5 sen and IFCA MSC gained 6.0 sen to 81.5 sen.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index went up 36.79 points to 10,878.40, FBMT100 Index rose 29.04 points to 10,610.21 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index advanced 17.70 points to 11,383.76.

The FBM 70 gained 33.77 points to 11,614.00 while the FBM Ace was up 143.90 points to 5,308.69.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index rose 129.51 points to 14,026.62, Industrial Index shed 5.76 points to 3,032.79 while the Plantation Index trimmed 16.68 points to 6,782.50.

Main Market volume expanded to 972.20 million units worth RM1.42 billion from 734.95 million units worth RM1.27 billion yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE Market rose to 450.39 million shares valued at RM124.98 million from 256.82 million shares valued at RM73.98 million previously.

Volume for warrants shrank to 583.97 million units worth RM156.36 million from yesterday’s 691.98 million units worth RM184.68 million.

Consumer products accounted for 129.70 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (152.63 million), construction (54.85 million), trade and services (390.92 million), technology (60.33 million), infrastructure (13.43 million), SPAC (12.11 million), finance (41.74 million), hotels (602,100), properties (94.71 million), plantations (10.46 million), mining (94,500), REITs (10.55 million), and closed/fund (62,700). — Bernama