KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 3): The FBM KLCI rose 0.8% on bargain hunting and after the US shares' overnight rise spurred Asian shares today.

At 12:30pm, the KLCI settled at 1,602.86, as investors bought beaten-down Malaysian shares after the KLCI fell 19.02 points or 1.18% yesterday.

Across Asia today, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.42%, while South Korea's Kospi was 0.06% higher. China markets are closed for a holiday today.

Reuters reported that Wall Street stocks jumped almost 2% on Wednesday, which traders saw as a natural move after big falls. Despite Wednesday's rebound, shares have only recovered about half of the losses seen earlier in the week.

Today, Bursa Malaysia saw gainers outpacing decliners by 415 to 173, while 262 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 944.36 million shares, valued at RM644.04 million.

Top gainers included British American Tobacco (M) Bhd and Top Glove Corp Bhd. Major decliners included Nestle (M) Bhd and Shangri-La Hotels (M) Bhd.

Actively-traded stocks included AirAsia Bhd and IFCA MSC Bhd.

In currency markets, the ringgit weakened to 4.2320 against the US dollar and compared to the Singapore dollar, the ringgit depreciated to 2.9862.

According to a Bloomberg report, the ringgit extended the week’s losses on concern that the erosion of Malaysia’s foreign-exchange reserves will further hurt investor sentiment in an economy reeling from falling oil prices and a political scandal.