KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's benchmark stock index pulled ahead by a slim margin at midday as investors anticipate the return of President-elect Donald Trump to the White House.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 3.12 points to 1,569.84 amid a broader market rebound that saw 540 gainers compared to 335 decliners.
Turnover was 1.89 billion shares valued at RM1.3bil.
Regional markets were also higher, as investors awaited the promise of policy announcements from the first day of Trump's presidency.
Japan's Nikkei rose 1.18% to 38,904 and China's composite index gained 0.48% to 3,257.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 2.33% to 20,041. Singapore's Straits Times slipped 0.07% to 3,808.
On the FBM KLCI, Maybank climbed 14 sen to RM10.28 to lead the market higher.
Tenaga Nasional rose 14 sen to RM13.74 and Gamuda leapt nine sen to RM4.33.
Public Bank, however, dove 15 sen to RM4.29 while Kuala Lumpur Kepong slid 12 sen to RM20.48.
Meanwhile, most active counters were Ingenieur trading unchanged at five sen, MYEG up two sen to 96 sen and CBH Engineering down one sen to 31.5 sen.