KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI moved higher in morning trade as investors sought to pick up on bargains after the furious selling in recent days.
At 12.30pm, the key index was up 8.02 points to 1,449.26. There was an overall improvement in the market with 508 gainers compared with 296 decliners.
Trading volume was 1.47 billion shares exchanging hands for RM807.9mil.
Most improved among the blue chips was Press Metal
, which rose 15 sen to RM4.74.
IHH gained nine sen to RM6.42, Petronas Gas added 28 sen to RM16.24 and Maxis climbed four sen to RM3.21.
While sentiment in the sector has been negative, there was a return of buying interest in glove stocks amid news of growing coronavirus cases in various countries.
Top Glove jumped 7.5 sen to RM1.06 after slipping below the RM1 mark yesterday, Hartalega rose 10 sen to RM2.92, Kossan gained four sen to RM1.36 and Supermax added two sen to 88 sen.
Among actives, DNex was up two sen to 78.5 sen, Yong Tai stayed flat at nine sen and SFP Tech was unchanged at 67 sen.
Major Asian markets turned higher, tracking US futures, as investors took a breather from the furious selling amid rising US interest rates.
Japan's Nikkei gained 2.15%, South Korea's Kospi added 0.9% and China's composite index rose 0.2%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Australia's ASX200 put on 1.4% each.
