KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia recovered from its early morning slide as Asian markets seemed intent on halting the selloff stemming from the collapse of the Turkish Lira.
Japan's Nikkei held on to its early 1% gain, although soft economic data derailed Chinese markets, pulling down the Shanghai Composite index by 0.6%.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was 0.3 points higher at 1,783.64. Trading volume was 1.16 billion shares valued at RM987.82mil. There were 368 gainers versus 359 decliners and 380 counters unchanged.
MISC slipped the most in morning trade, losing 14 sen to RM6. IHH also weighed, dropping seven sen to RM5.38 while Maybank fell five sen to RM9.83 and Petronas Gas slid 18 sen to RM18.58.
On the advancing end, Tenaga Nasional gained 10 sen to RM15.66, Maxis rose six sen to RM5.72 and Sime Darby Plantation
added three sen to RM5.24.
On the broader market Vitrox climbed 30 sen to RM7.64, BAT gained 28 sen to RM35.06 and Dufu rose 11 sen to RM1.84.
KESM lost 20 sen to RM17.30, MSM slid 10 sen to RM3.70 and Westports slipped seven sen to RM3.55.
Oil prices picked up on Tuesday following a report from OPEC that confirmed top exporter Saudi Arabia has cut production to avert possible ovesupply.
WTI crude rose 29 cents to US$67.49 a barrel while Brent crude gained 23 cents to US$72.84 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit slid against major currencies. It was slightly weaker against the greenback at 4.0957, 0.15% down against the pound sterling at 5.2301 and 0.2% lower against the Singapore dollar at 2.9800.
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