KUALA LUMPUR: The domestic equities market remained just mildly higher at midday, foiling hopes of a stronger rebound following yesterday's sharp sell-off.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 2.22 points to 1,423.07. The market was negative overall with 421 decliners compared with 257 gainers.
There were 1.1 billion shares crossing hands for a value of RM638.56mil.
Sime Darby Plantation
lifted the market as it bounced back 24 sen to RM4.07. Sector peer Kuala Lumpur Kepong also gained 62 sen to RM20.64.
However, the same could not be said for IOI, which dropped one sen to RM3.75.
There was also little movement from the financial services sector to support the rally as most bank counters remained unchanged. Maybank slipped two sen to RM8.60 while RHB dropped four sen to RM5.68.
Meanwhile, PETRONAS Chemicals slid 27 sen to RM8.38 amid the weaker demand prospects in the oil and gas sector.
On the broader market, top active counter Seng Fong was down 5.5 sen to 69.5 sen on its debut on the Main Market.
Jade Marvel dove 8.5 sen to 83 sen and Top Glove bounced six sen higher to RM1.
In major Asian markets, equities prices tracked the positive performance on Wall Street even as sentiment remained capped by recession fears.
Japan's Nikkei rose 1.2%, South Korea's Kospi climbed 2% and China's composite index gained 0.5%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng slid 0.4% while Australia's ASX200 rose 0.4%.
