KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI extended its gains in the morning session to affirm the continuation of a rally following the previous day's breakout.
At 12.30pm, the key index was up 5.32 points to 1,524.1.
The market breadth however turned slightly negative as the decliners outpaced the gainers 389 to 341.
Trading volume was 1.6 billion shares for a value of RM956.71mil.
Blue-chip counters on Bursa Malaysia continued to attract buying interest, in line with the buying momentum seen in global equities.
Most telcos turned higher to resume their rally with Axiata rising six sen to RM3.14, Maxis gaining three sen to RM4.01 and Digi losing one sen to RM3.85.
Banks were mixed with Maybank up two sen to RM8.99, Public Bank gaining one sen to RM4.66 and RHB losing two sen to RM5.90
PETRONAS Chemicals rose six sen to RM8.81.
Glove makers continued to be among the most actively traded stocks as investors keep up the selling pressure amid a downbeat outlook.
Hartalega
, the most active stock with 106.27 million units traded, shed seven sen to RM1.70, while Top Glove resumed its positive retracement by two sen to 85.5 sen.
Other heavily traded counters included Metronic up 0.5 sen to 5.5 sen, PHB gaining 0.5 sen to one sen and G3 unchanged at three sen.
Asian markets meanwhile tracked Wall Street's overnight rally as US retail giants put in solid earnings numbers.
Japan's Nikkei rose 1% to 29,153, South Korea's Kospi lost 0.5% to 2,521 and China's composite index rose 0.3% to 3,287.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng was up 0.8% to 19,997 while Australia's ASX200 added 0.2% to 7,120.
