KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI remained positive at midday amid a pick-up in regional equities prices as investors cautiously bet on oversold counters.
There was a positive performance throughout the morning session with little impact from the release of the country's May inflation data (2.8% year-on-year) at noon.
At 12.30pm, the country's key index was up 5.76 points to 1,436.81. There were 409 positive counters on the market compared with 330 decliners.
Trading volume was 1.48 billion shares valued at RM753.18mil.
Press Metal was the biggest winner of the early session as it rose 15 sen to RM4.78 following the price volatility in past sessions.
IHH was up 10 sen to RM6.46, Petronas Chemicals edged one sen higher to RM9.16 and Petrons Gas rose four sen to RM16.30.
Bank stocks were overall improved with Maybank rising three sen to RM8.59, Public Bank adding three sen to RM4.43 and CIMB gaining one sen to RM4.91. Hong Leong Bank however slipped 24 sen to RM20.16.
Sector highlights included technology companies, which tracked US tech valuations higher as investors betted that the worst was over for the Nasdaq, Wall Street's worst-performing index this year.
MPI added 80 sen to RM28, Greatech Technologies climbed 17 sen to RM3.74 and Unisem rose 13 sen to RM2.28.
Top actives included DNex rising one sen to 76.5 sen, TWL adding 0.5 sen to 7.5 sen and Hibiscus Petroleum losing two sen to 91.5 sen.
Investor sentiment as improved across major Asian markets, on expectation that inflation levels had peaks as the US Federal Reserve committed itself to normalising consumer prices.
Japan's Nikkei rose 1.1%, South Korea's Kospi gained 1.9% and China's composite index added 0.4%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.5% and Australia's ASX200 was up 0.3%.