KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 23): Trading in small-cap stocks hit by margin restrictions remained elevated on Tuesday, even though selling slowed amid gains in key market indices.

The three worst-hit counters in the recent market sell-off — Rapid Synergy Bhd, YNH Property Bhd and Sarawak Consolidated Industries Bhd (SCIB) — led with the highest turnover even among big-cap counters.

Rapid Synergy (unchanged at RM1.95) and YNH Property (up 5.5 sen to 61 sen) — both put on lower limits freeze again on Tuesday — were traded to the tune of RM254.07 million and RM206.04 million, respectively.

Rapid Synergy was the fifth top active counter with 122.8 million shares traded, as trading volume surged to 114% of its issued shares, compared with its five-day average volume of 0.7%.

For YNH, the trading volume of 300.24 million shares on Tuesday represented 55% of its share capital, compared with its average of 48% in the last five days. It was the third top active counter on Bursa Malaysia.

SCIB (unchanged at 43.5 sen) saw RM144.47 million in value traded, with its trading volume of 308.4 million shares making it the second top active counter behind Widad Group Bhd (up five sen to 18.5 sen, 645.63 million shares traded) — another counter that was recently heavily sold.

Jentayu Sustainables Bhd — share price down 35% this year — emerged as the second top gainer, hitting a limit up of 30 sen before settling at 83.5 sen, still up 29 sen or 53.21%.

Other counters that were also in the spotlight during the recent sell-off traded largely range-bound, including Silver Ridge Holdings Bhd (up five sen to 43.5 sen); Imaspro Corp Bhd (up five sen to RM1.44); Artroniq Bhd (up 3.5 sen to 36 sen); Leform Bhd (up 1.5 sen to 19.5 sen); Mestron Holdings Bhd (up one sen to 33 sen); and Mercury Securities Group Bhd (up one sen to 48 sen).

APB Resources Bhd traded unchanged at RM2, while HeiTech Padu Bhd, which hit limit down last Friday, slipped half a sen to 88.5 sen.

Across Bursa Malaysia, gainers led decliners at 511 counters to 470, while 465 counters traded unchanged. Some 5.16 billion shares worth RM3.33 billion were traded.

The benchmark KLCI rose 0.33% for its third day of gains, tracking overnight gains in the US where key indices S&P 500 and the DJIA inched higher to extend recent gains to another record high.

The FBM Small Cap Index rose 0.13%, and the FBM ACE Index 0.42%, although the latter remains down by 8.8% from the start of the year.