KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's benchmark index stayed near the 1,400 psychological support as efforts to stabilise the global banking systems amid fears of defaults continued.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 1.25 points to 1,400.95. There were 493 decliners compared with 233 gainers.
Trading volume was 1.74 billion shares valued at RM777.41mil.
Leading the index higher, PETRONAS Chemicals gained 15 sen to RM6.82 while PETRONAS Gas climbed 34 sen to RM16.46.
Press Metal
added two sen to RM4.69, Axiata gained one sen to RM3 and Kuala Lumpur Kepong jumped 22 sen to RM21.02.
Meanwhile, glove counters retreated led by Hartalega down nine sen to RM1.86 and Top Glove falling four sen to 91.5 sen.
Among top actives, AT was flat at one sen, CFM dropped one sen to 26.5 sen and Hong Seng slid 0.5 sen to 12 sen.
In key regional markets, Japan's Nikkei rose 0.4% to 27,499, South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.2% to 2,410 and China's composite index shed 1.1% to 3,231.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.5% to 19,815 and Australia's ASX200 gained 0.1% go 6,961.
