KUALA LUMPUR: Heavy churning of penny stocks saw the local stock market record a fresh high in trading volume at over 15 billion units – the second successive day on Tuesday – amid a firmer broader market.

At 5pm, the FBM KLCI pared its losses to end 3.33 points higher or 0.21% to 1,575.94, tracking the stronger key Asian markets. The KLCI hit an intra-day low of 1,549.62.

Turnover on Bursa was 15.62 billion shares valued at RM10.45bil. There were 608 gainers, 514 losers and 376 counters unchanged.

On Monday, trading volume was 13.128 billion shares valued at RM8.24bil. The 30-stock KLCI saw RM20bil wiped out that day.

Supermax and its call warrants were among the top gainers list. It jumped RM3.08 to RM22.42, Top Glove RM1.48 higher at RM28.36 while Adventa gained 96 sen to RM3.71 and Careplus 63 sen to RM5.37. Hartalega lost 56 sen to RM19.94

Crude palm oil for third month delivery rose RM47 to RM2,778 per tonne. PPB Group added 30 sen to RM18.86, KL Kepong two sen to RM23.20, IOI Corp lost five sen to RM4.44 and Sime Plantation one sen to RM5.07.

Tenaga fell 16 sen to RM10.94, Genting rose seven sen to RM3.73 and GentingM one sen to RM2.23 while also up one sen was Sime Darby to RM2.19.

US light crude oil fell 46 cents to US$40.55 and Brent lost 48 cents to US$43.67.

Petronas Chemicals and Petronas Gas lost eight sen each to RM5.82 and RM16.34 while Petronas Dagangan was down by 24 sen to RM20.42. Dialog gained seven sen to RM3.67.

SAM Engineering rose 69 sen to RM7.81.

As for banks, CIMB, Maybank and RHB Bank were flat at RM3.46, RM7.50 and RM4.92 respectively but Public Bank gained 14 sen to RM16.70 and Hong Leong Bank 10 sen higher at RM14.40.

Among telcos, Axiata rose three sen to RM3.13, Digi shed two sen to RM4.14, Maxis lost eight sen to RM5.13 and Telekom four sen lower at RM3.92.

The ringgit firmed up 0.03% against the US dollar to 4.2192.

On the external front, China stocks ended higher, underpinned by strong gains in banks as investors cheered Beijing's latest move to ease pressure on the country's financial institutions, Reuters reported.

The blue-chip CSI300 index rose 0.1%, to 4,775.80, while the Shanghai Composite Index also inched up 0.1% to 3,371.69.

Meanwhile, Japanese shares ended higher as investor sentiment was lifted by a tech-led overnight rally on Wall Street, and a softer yen propped up exporters.

The benchmark Nikkei average gained 1.7% to 22,573.66, its highest close since July 28, while the broader Topix jumped 2.14% to 1,555.26.

Hong Kong stocks snapped a three-session losing streak and ended higher led by strong gains in technology firms. The Hang Seng index was up 488.50 points or 2% at 24,946.63. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index rose 1.7% to 10,203.88.