KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia held on to its lead in the morning session and was lifted along with regional markets on optimism over trade talks between China and the US.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 6.54 points to 1,783.81. Trading volume was 1.2 billion shares valued at RM885.75mil. There were 464 advancers versus 308 decliners and 384 counters unchanged.
Among telcos, Maxis moved up 12 sen to RM5.78, Axiata added seven sen to RM4.36, and Dig gained two sen to RM4.54.
Bank stocks fared better with Public Bank gaining two sen to RM24.50, CIMB rising two sen to RM5.90 and RHB adding one sen to RM5.08.
IHH Healthcare rose five sen to RM5.48 while MISC put on 12 sen to RM6.05.
On the declining end of the index, Nestle lost 60 sen to RM146.40, Petronas Chemicals dropped four sen to RM9.20 and Petronas Gas fell four sen to RM18.34.
On the broader market, BAT led gains with a 66 sen rise to RM36. AirAsia climbed 13 sen to RM3.51 and IQ Group added 12 sen to RM1.57.
Meanwhile, Dutch Lady
shaved 28 sen to RM66.50, F&N lost 16 sen to RM37.64, DKSH dropped 13 sen to RM3.68.
Oil prices fell with US crude heading for a seventh weekly decline amid increasing concerns about slowing global economic growth that could hit demand for petroleum products as inventories build, Reuters reported.
WTI crude slipped two cents to US$65.44 a barrel while Brent crude dropped six cents to US$71.37.
In currencies, the ringgit was little changed against the greenbck at 4.1048. It slipped 0.17% against the pound sterling at 5.2227 and dropped 0.12% against the Singapore dollar at 2.9844.
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