KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI extended its gains going into midday as buying momentum grew following the sharp increase in Wall Street benchmarks overnight.
Confidence over the state of global growth has improved following weeks of negative developments plaguing investor sentiment.
With holiday spending in the US rising to its highest in six years coupled with markets receiving a boost from year-end window-dressing activities, global equities have embarked on a rally.
Japan's Nikkei was the strongest performing index in the region, jumping 4%. Other major markets showed more conservative gains - Shanghai's Composite Index rose 0.55%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 0.6% and South Korea's Kospi added 0.2%.
In Southeast Asia, Singapore's Straits Times was the best performer, jumping 2% while Thailand's SET Index followed with 1.5%.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 12.65 points or 0.75% to 1,685.25. Turnover remained low at 964.12mil valued at RM557.49mil. There were 517 advancers compared to 160 decliners and 284 counters.
On the 30-stock benchmark index, 25 counters showed gains while two dipped and three were unchanged.
Petronas Chemicals led the lift, gaining 17 sen to RM9.36. In other Petronas counters, Petronas Gas rose 20 sen to RM18.98 and Petronas Dagangan was unchanged at RM26.20.
Among banks, Public Bank was up 12 sen to RM24.88, Hong Leong Bank rose 16 sen to RM20.36, Maybank gained three sen to RM9.38 and Ambank advanced five sen to RM4.32.
Among decliners, RHB slid one sen to RM5.29 and IHH dropped three sen to RM5.36.
Most actively traded stocks were Hibiscus, jumping 5.5 sen to 83 sen. Sapura Energy
rising 0.5 sen to 29.5 sen and Prestariang surging four sen to 44.5 sen.
In oil markets, slight profit-taking took place following the 8% surge in prices in the previous session amid a resurgence in confidence over global demand.
US crude fell 11 cents to US$46.11 a barrel while Brent crude dropped 15 cents to US$54.32 a barrel.
On the forex market, the ringgit was unchanged against the US dollar at 4.1768. It moved 0.24% higher against the pound sterling at 5.2892 and 0.15% against the Singapore dollar at 3.0421.
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