KUALA LUMPUR: Global equities latched on to Wall Street's overnight rally on relief that the US midterm election passed without any major surprises.
Investors also speculate that the political gridlock in Washington will force US President Donald Trump to reconsider his stance on the trade war to keep the US economy growing.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was 6.32 points higher to 1,721.20 points. Trading volume was 1.36 billion shares valued at RM1.08bil. There were 435 advancers versus 302 gainers and 325 counters unchanged.
Along leading advancers, Sime Darby Plantation
rose 10 sen to RM5.30, MISC gained 10 sen to RM7 and TNB added 10 sen to RM14.92.
Decliners included Petronas Gas falling two sen to RM18.68, IHH dipping one sen to RM4.99 and Axiata sliding four sen to RM3.56.
Among most active counters, K Group gained two sen to eight sen, Sapura Energy fell one sen to 36 sen and Tat Giap jumped 3.5 sen to 21 sen.
Leading gainers included BAT climbing RM1.56 to RM37.78, United Plantation rising 62 szen to RM27.12 and Dutch Lady gaining 46 sen to RM63.98.
F&N slipped back 62 sen to RM34.34, Heineken dropped 38 sen to RM19.82 and Carlsberg fell 30 sen to RM19.40.
Oil prices dipped on Thursday as record US crude output heightened concerns of a return of global oversupply, stoking talk from within OPEC that production curbs may become necessary once again to prevent a glut, Reuters reported.
WTI crude rose four cents to US$61.71 a barrel while Brent crude dropped four cents to US$72.03 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit slipped marginally against the greenback to 4.16. It rose 0.3% against the pound sterlig to 5.4670 and 0.25% against the Singapore dollar to 3.0367.
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