KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 10): The FBM KLCI continued to advance today, constituting the third consecutive trading day of gains.

The local headline index closed 0.48% or 7.96 points higher at 1,654.39 points, the highest it has been in 18 months.

The counters that lifted the index were banking stocks CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd (HLFG) and rubber glove manufacturer Top Glove Corp Bhd.

CIMB finished 5.68% or 23 sen higher at RM4.28 while HLFG was up 2.27% or 40 sen higher at RM18. As for Top Glove, it finished 2.19% or 15 sen higher at RM6.99.

Conversely, the top decliners today were MISC Bhd, Hartalega Holdings Bhd and Petronas Dagangan Bhd (PetDag).

In a note, TA Securities Research said key index heavyweights may continue to rise on economic recovery optimism while the broader market will go on a profit-taking break to consolidate recent strong gains.

“Next immediate index resistance will be 1,660 and then 1,680, with following upside hurdle seen from the July 2019 peak of 1,694. Immediate uptrend supports are from the rising 10-day, recent lows, 100-day and 50-day moving averages at 1,613, 1,580, 1,562, 1,548 and 1,545, respectively,” it noted.

The gains seen among the headline index did not overtly manifest across the broader market, with the number of decliners standing at 567 counters with the gainers numbering at 505 and those that went unchanged at 602 counters.

The total number of shares traded on the local bourse amounted to 8.1 billion shares valued at RM4.83 billion.

Top actives included the likes of XOX Bhd, AirAsia X Bhd and Trive Property Group Bhd. Podium finishes for the top losers list included Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd, Vitrox Corp Bhd and PetDag. As for the top gainers, Nestle Malaysia Bhd, HLFG and BIMB Holdings Bhd made the top three.

Regional markets were largely in the red. The Hong Kong Hang Seng was 0.35% or 92.25 points lower at 26,410.59 points. Meanwhile, the Nikkei 225 closed 0.23% or 61.70 points lower at 26,756.24 points and the Kospi was down by 0.33% or 9.01 points at 2,746.46 points. In Singapore, the Straits Times Index was down 0.48% or 13.72 points at 2,829.35 points

However, the Shanghai Composite bucked the trend, finishing 0.04% or 1.31 points higher at 3,373.28 points.

A confluence of factors weighed on Asian bourses today. Reuters reported that while Shanghai shares were up following upbeat lending data, South Korean and Singaporean shares fell following changes in the S&P Dow Jones Indices, driven by an executive order from US President Donald Trump — indicating the ratcheting tensions between US and China.

“S&P DJI's move comes after index provider FTSE Russell said last week that it would remove eight Chinese firms from its products to comply with the US executive order,” Reuters reported.