KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia held on to most of the gains it had made in the early morning session as it took the lead of regional peers.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI rose 9.68 points to 1,802.62, retracing nearly all the losses it had seen in the previous session.
The index shaved over 10 points on Tuesday in a knee-jerk reaction following the announcement of the US tariffs on US$200bil of Chinese imports taking effect on Sept 25.
Trading volume was 1.15 billion shares worth RM871.45bil. Gainers outpaced decliners 433 to 303 while 340 counters were unchanged.
Bank stocks led the morning rebound with Hong Leong Bank rising 52 sen to RM20.72 and Public Bank gaining 26 sen to RM25.16.
Maybank put on five sen to RM9.79 and CIMB rose six sen to RM6.10
Petronas Gas, which was the strongest performer on the 30-stock index in yesterday's session, rose a further 16 sen to RM19.16.
IHH returned to positive territory after an early morning selldown, rising five sen to RM5.11.
On the broader market, UMW jumped 28 sen to RM5.38 while Mi Equipment gained 18 sen to RM3.33.
BAT lost ground by 50 sen to RM32.90 and Allianz slid 30 sen to RM12.60 while Tasek dropped 20 sen to RM6.30.
Oil prices were steady on Wednesday as concerns that producers will not be able to respond to a shortfall in supply once U.S. sanctions on Iran are enacted outweighed a gain in stockpiles in the United States, the world's biggest oil user, Reuters reported.
WTI crude rose two cents to US$69.87 a barrel while Brent crude slipped four cents to US$78.99 a barrel.
The ringgit held firm against major currencies, trading little changed against the US dollar at 4.1430, the pound sterling at 5.4475 and the Singapore dollar at 3.0231.
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