KUALA LUMPUR: The rally in Asian markets had a positive impact on the local bourse on Wednesday as investors perked up on news of strong global earnings and economic growth.
In the US, markets had posted record closing highs overnight with the Dow Jones setting an intra-day high.
At midday, the FBM KLCI was 4.85 points higher to 1,725.53 points. Turnover was 1.21 billion shares with a value of RM1.09bil. There were 368 gainers versus 233 decliners and 525 counters unchanged.
Petronas Chemicals led gains on the index rising eight sen to RM7.31. Petronas Dagangan gained 70 sen to RM24 while Genting Malaysia rose eight sen to RM4.98 and Genting nine sen to RM9.17.
Hong Leong Bank was another leading gainer on the KLCI, rising 10 sen to RM15.50 while Hong Leong Financial Group rose 22 sen to RM16.02.
Other gainers included Public Bank, adding four sen to RM20.36, CIMB rising two sen to RM5.97, KL Kepong moving four sen higher to RM24.50 and MISC putting on five sen to RM7.29.
Leading decliners were Petronas Gas, which fell 12 sen to RM17.02 and Maxis, which dipped one sen to RM5.98.
On the wider market, glovemakers rose with Hartalega
putting on 50 sen to RM914 while Kossan gained 32 sen to RM8.25. Top Glove rose 19 sen to RM6.69.
Decliners included Time dotCom which fell 12 sen to RM9.05, PPB which declined 18 sen to RM16.70 and DKSH which slipped 19 sen to RM4.24.
Crude oil prices rose on Wednesday amid reports of a fall in US crude investories and increased optimism that the Opec-led production cuts would be extended beyond March 2018.
US light oil rose 90 cents to US$57.73 a barrel while Brent crude added 38 cents to US$62.95 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit continued to gain strength, rising 0.43% against the greenback to 4.1223. It rose 0.35% against the pound sterling at 5.4645 and 0.3% against the Singapore dollar at 3.0446.
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