KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI stayed slightly ahead following the release of data that showed that country's economy expanded a better-than-expected 8.9% in the second quarter of the year.
TVhe equities market, which had stayed in the positive territory for most of the morning session, kept its lead into midday, ending 2.67 points higher at 1,508.23.
However, there was some profit-taking across the broader market with 395 decliners compared with 306 gainers.
Trading volume was 1.14 billion shares valued at RM787.5mil.
Bank stocks rose on confirmation of the strong economic performance; Maybank rose three sen to RM8.97, CIMB added two sen to RM5.39, Hong Leong Bank jumped 10 sen to RM20.88 and RHB was up three sen to RM5.94.
PETRONAS Chemicals rose five sen to RM8.83 and MISC climbed 14 sen to RM7.39.
Glove stocks were among the decliners as Hartalega
dove 23 sen to RM2.05 in heavy trade following its recent release of disappointing earnings.
Top Glove, the top traded counters of the morning with 61.6 million shares exchanging hands, fell 5.5 sen to 87 sen.
Kossan Rubber was also a leading laggards, losing 11 sen to RM1.06.
Among the technology counters, MPI was down 20 sen to RM32, Pentamaster shed nine sen to RM4.06 and UWC lost four sen to RM4.02.
The sharp rally in the previous session gave way to uncertainty in Asia as investors looked ahead towards the US Federal Reserve's next monetary policy open committee meeting.
Japan's stock exchange, which was closed yesterday for a national holiday, played catch up with a 2.4% jump to 28,486.
South Korea's Kospi rose 0.1% to 2,526 while China's composite index shed 0.2% to 3,276 as Covid cases in the country rose.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.3% to 20,146 and Australia's ASX200 lost 0.7% to 7,021.
