Gainers trounced losers by 585 to 148, with 118 other counters unchanged.

One brokerage dealer said trading was volatile with extended forced selling activities aggravating the uncertain sentiment over the divergent directions of key New York indices - the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite Index.

'The market earlier was basically down from the opening, with forced selling by brokers continuing from [Monday],' he said.

He said the early losses had subsequently spurred bargain hunting.

'Buying of key blue chips such as Telekom and Genting, which had fallen quite a bit in the morning, set the tone for some slight bargain hunting activities across the board,' he said.

He also said that a mixture of domestic and foreign funds bought select index-linked counters.

'It was quiet for the retail investors, who are basically still sidelined,' he said.

'I don't think they want to jump in too quickly after suffering losses and having their shares sold off.' Close: 892.92 (+ 5.04) Turnover: M$773.17 mln Volume: 248.5 mln shares