KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI retraced some of its earlier gains by midday but remained ahead of the previous close as global equities surged on renewed optimism.
US-China trade talks last week yielded few concrete resolutions but are set to continue this week as the two nations rush to come to an agreement before the March 1 deadline.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 2.18 points to 1,691.01. Trading volume was 1.54 billion shares valued at RM729.58mil. There were 389 advancers versus 300 decliners and 369 counters unchanged.
Among key Asian indices, the Shanghai Composite Index is up 1.8%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.5%, Japan's Nikkei grew 1.8% and South Korea's Kospi gained 0.5%.
Stocks on the KLCI seeing investor interest included Axiata, which rose six sen, on news that it was selling its stake in Singapore's M1 for RM1.65bil.
MISC rose five sen to RM6.90 while Digi gained three sen to RM4.64.
Maxis succumbed to selling pressure on a negative earnings announcement, losing seven sen to RM5.56. Other stocks on the slide included Tenaga Nasional dropping four sen to RM13 and KL Kepong shedding 14 sen to RM24.66.
Top active stocks in the morning session included Sapura Energy
slipping 0.5 sen to 31 sen, Borneo Oil trading unchanged at 4.5 sen and Bumi Armada losing one sen to 22.5 sen.
Leading gainers on the stock exchange were Carlsberg up RM1.04 to RM22.96, Aeon Credit Services up 32 sen to RM16.82 and Amway up 25 sen to RM6.
BAT led the decline with a 56 sen slide to RM35.86, followed by Shangri-La falling 18 sen to RM5.60 and LPI dropping 16 sen to RM16.22.
Brent crude retraced some of its gains after an early session jump to 2019 highs. Oil traders switched to profit-taking as China reported weak automobile sales in January, raising concerns over oil demand.
Nevertheless, the international benchmark for crude oil remained six cents higher over the previous session at US$66.31.
US crude was up 25 cents to US$55.84 a barrel.
On the forex market, the ringgit was 0.1% higher over the US dollar at 4.0825. It however slipped 0.7% against the pound sterling at 5.2721 and was flat against the Singapore dollar at 3.0118.
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