KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's benchmark stock index remained in positive territory at midday after a positive performance on Wall Street helped to return investors to a rally.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 2.99 points to 1,453.77 as most blue chips turned higher following four days of profit-taking.
PPB rose eight sen to RM14.60, Sime Darby Plantation
added three sen to RM4.47 and YTL Power gained four sen to RM2.54.
Press Metal climbed three sen to RM4.82, Maxis gained three sen to RM3.87 and Genting added two sen to RM4.58.
Over the broader market, there were 391 gainers compared to 379 decliners. Trading volume was 1.84 billion shares valued at RM937.18mil.
Topping the actives list, Sarawak Cable jumped 7.5 sen to 35.5 sen while SMTrack was unchanged at five sen and Velesto remained flat at 23 sen.
In regional markets, equities prices tracked the rally on Wall Street as optimism for a strong year-end finish grew.
Investors are growing more confident that the US Federal Reserve could begin cutting interest rates by as early as March, raising the risk appetite for equities.
In Japan's the Nikkei rose 1.2% to 33,707 while South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.1% to 2,600.
China's composite index was up 0.4% to 2,911 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 1.5% to 16,590.
