KUALA LUMPUR (April 13): The FBM KLCI fell at the 11th hour after tracking Asian share gains earlier today.

Reuters reported that a rally in China's stock markets to seven-year highs on Monday kept an index of Asian shares near its highest level since September, as weak Chinese trade data intensified expectations for more economic stimulus measures from Beijing.

In Malaysia, the FBM KLCI fell 2.23 points or 0.12% to settle at 1,842.08 points at 5pm. The index fell on losses in stocks such as Genting Bhd and Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd.

Earlier today, the KLCI had risen to an intraday high of 1,847.50. As external factors had an upper hand in dictating the KLCI's performance, remisiers said the index lacked domestic catalysts.

A remisier said the index was rather uninteresting today, trapped in range-bound trading.

“The KLCI was range-bound today, trading within a five-point range. There was not much going on today,” he said.

Across Asia, South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.53%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 2.73% while the Shanghai Composite rose 2.2%. Japan’s Nikkei 225, however, fell 0.01%.

Bursa Malaysia saw some 2.12 billion shares worth RM1.87 billion traded. Gainers beat decliners at 467 against 378, while 319 counters were unchanged.

Nestle (M) Bhd led gainers while Pestech International Bhd led decliners. The most active top stock was Frontken Corp Bhd.

In currency markets, the ringgit weakened to 3.7087 versus the US dollar and compared to the Singapore dollar, the ringgit depreciated to 2.7046.

Bloomberg reported that Malaysia’s ringgit led losses in Asian currencies as the dollar gained on the outlook for US interest rate increases and following China trade data that missed estimates.