KUALA LUMPUR: Battered global markets rebounded on Thursday as political parties in Italy resumed talks in an atttempt to form a coalition government.
At Bursa Malaysia, stocks recovered slightly in the morning session although leading banking heavyweight Maybank continued to slide after yesterday's rout.
By midday break, the FBM KLCI was up 7.68 points to 1,726.96. Turnover was 1.64 billion shares with a value of RM1.57bil. There were 438 gainers versus 363 decliners and 353 counters unchanged.
Leading the rebound, Tenaga Nasional gained 28 sen to RM14.42 while Digi rose 12 sen to RM4.32 and Hong Leong added 38 sen to RM18.98.
CIMB edged up two sen to RM5.92 while Public Bank also moved up two sen to RM24.
On the losing end, Maybank fell six sen to RM9.51, IOI dropped 11 sen to RM4.59 and IHH slid four sen to RM5.91.
On the wider market, F&N picked up 98 sen to RM38 while Hengyuan retraced 53 sen to RM6.68. MAHB added 17 sen to RM8.47.
Carlsberg slipped 68 sen to RM19.84, BAT slipped 30 sen to RM31.70 and IJM fell 22 sen to RM1.62.
Oil prices continued to face negative pressure on expectations that OPEC would increase increase supplies in June.
WTI crude dropped nine cents to US$68.11 a barrel while Brent crude fell 28 cents to US$77.22.
On the forex, the ringgit rebounded against major currencies, rising 0.3% agains the greenback to 3.9770, 0.1% against the pound sterling at 5.291 and 0.04% against the Singapore dollar at 2.9706.
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