KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 15): The FBM KLCI rose 6.22 points or 0.4%, paring gains as investors took profit from the index's intraday advance. Malaysian shares had tracked Asian share markets' substantial gains.

At 5pm, the KLCI closed at 1,649.96 points after rising to an intraday high of 1,661.34.

Most Asian stock indices rose. Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped 7.16%, South Korea's Kospi gained 1.47% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 3.27%.

Reuters reported Asian shares snapped a five-session losing streak on Monday as China's central bank fixed the yuan sharply stronger, easing fears of depreciation for now, though a string of weak data from Japan to China and Indonesia suggested the bounce may be short-lived.

In China, spot yuan jumped more than 1% to 6.4900 per dollar — its firmest this year — after the People's Bank of China set its daily midpoint 0.3% stronger and the head of the bank was quoted as saying speculators should not be allowed to dominate market sentiment.

In Malaysia, Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd head of research Pong Teng Siew told theedgemarkets.com that investors might be feeling cautious about how the KLCI would perform ahead.

Pong said this was given that KLCI futures, despite gains today, were still at a discount to the cash market.

The February 2016 contract rose 11.5 points to 1,649.5 points while March contract was traded 10.5 points higher at 1,642 points.

On the broader market, Bursa Malaysia saw a total of 1.54 billion shares worth RM1.54 billion traded. Gainers outnumbered decliners at 497 against 297.

Hubline Bhd was the most-actively traded stock. The leading gainers included United Plantations Bhd and British American Tobacco (M) Bhd.

The biggest decliner was Shell Refining Co (Federation of Malaya) Bhd.