KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI rose in morning trade as Tenaga Nasional rebounded from yesterday's rout, leading the index higher.
The counter rose 20 sen, less than half its previous session losses, to RM12.26.
However, news of an early morning explosion and fire at the Pengerang oil and gas facility sent Petrons Chemicals' share price lower. The stock fell as much as 21 sen to RM8.75 in morning trade before rebounding to RM8.81.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 2.63 points to 1,626.86. Trading volume was 1.65 billions shares valued at RM852.23mil. There were 337 gainers versus 303 decliners and 424 counters unchanged.
Among leading gainers were plantation plays led by Sime Darby Plantation
gaining seven sen to RM5.12, PPB adding 16 sen to RM18.84 and IOI rising one sen to RM4.49.
Most actively traded counters were Bina Puri climbing three sen to 21.5 sen, Bumi Armada gaining 0.5 sen to 20.5 sen and Ekovest rising 0.5 sen to 63.5 sen.
Over the wider region, markets were mixed as the start of the US corporate earnings season next week sent investors to the sidelines.
The Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.4%, the CSI300 Index fell 0.8% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dipped 0.4%.
Japan's Nikkei however gained 0.6% and South Korea's Kospi rose 0.15%.
In oil markets, crude prices continued to rise on the Opec supply cuts and US sanctions.
US crude rose 25 cents to US$63.83 a barrel and Brent crude grew 25 cents to US$71.08 a barrel.
The ringgit was 0.2% lower against the US dollar at 4.1205. It fell 0.1% against the pound sterling at 5.3875 and was little changed against the Singapore dollar at 3.0389.
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