KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia maintained its lead at midday as the US presidential election went underway with most key Asian markets nudging higher.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI gained 5.81 points to 1,626.51 with banks and utilities lifting the market.
Overall, there were 591 gaining stocks on the market compared to 349 declining.
The share turnover was 1.64 billion changing hands for RM1.1bil.
Among the financial heavyweights, Maybank rose four sen to RM10.58, CIMB gained five sen to RM8.17, Public Bank added four sen to RM4.74 and RHB edged one sen higher to RM6.46.
Tenaga Nasional climbed 22 sen to RM14.30 and YTL Power rose six sen to RM3.33.
United Plantations continued to pick up gains, rising 52 sen to RM27.84, MPI added 34 sen to RM25.90 and PIE Industrial climbed 18 sen to RM5.26.
Of actives, 3REN jumped nine sen to 37 sen on its debut on the ACE Market with 126.59 million shares crossed, making it the day's most active share.
Among other leading actives, Cape EMS added one sen to 37 sen and Aizo was unchanged at 15.5 sen.
In regional markets, Japan's Nikkei rose 2.47% to 39,425 while China's composite index added 0.16% to 3,392.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng, however, dropped 2.61% to 20,459.
Singapore's Straits Times was 0.1% higher at 3,583.
