KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 14): The FBM KLCI closed up 0.44 point at 1,783.78 on bargain hunting after falling earlier today as investors evaluated China economic data, which missed market forecast.

Analysts said the KLCI closed higher as the impact of the Turkish lira's depreciation on Malaysian markets appeared not to be as bad as news reports suggested.

“The actual performance of the ringgit has shown that it is not as affected (by the depreciation of the lira) as international newswire reports suggest," Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd head of research Pong Teng Siew told theedgemarkets.com.

As such, Pong said the KLCI is “no longer in the crosshairs of funds looking to profit from the fall in the lira. Local funds are still poised to buy into the market (and) I am confident this trend will continue.”

Across Bursa Malaysia, 2.32 billion shares were traded today for RM2.48 billion.

The KLCI closed higher after falling to its intraday low at 1,778.20 as investors evaluated China's fixed-asset investment and retail sales growth figures.

Reuters reported that China's fixed-asset investment growth slowed more than expected to 5.5 percent in the first seven months of the year, in a further sign of softening demand in the world's second-largest economy, data showed on Tuesday.
Investment growth had been expected to remain at 6 percent in the first seven months of the year, in line with the pace in January-June.

It was reported that retail sales rose 8.8 percent in July from a year earlier, below an expected 9.1 percent and down from 9 percent in June. Globally, it was reported that world share markets regained their footing on Tuesday as the threat from the collapse of the Turkish lira ebbed and reassuring German data offset signs of slowing growth in China.

China stocks closed in the red. The Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite declined 0.18% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.66%. Elsewhere across Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 2.28% while South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.47%.