KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's benchmark stock index rebounded 1.5% in the early session as investors hunted for bargains after the US inflation print came in below expectatons.
The FBM KLCI retraced nearly two-thirds of the losses made in the previous session, rising 22.19 points to 1,507.02, tracking Wall Street's firmer close overnight.
Nearly all the stocks on the blue-chip index rallied higher, with notable gainers including Tenaga Nasional up 32 sen to RM13.32, CIMB jumping 26 sen to RM7.26 and Gamuda climbing 16 sen to RM3.93.
Traders were also seen picking up beaten-down lower liners, with the market registering a positive breadth of 651 gainers compared to 242 decliners.
Nationgate was the most active stock in the early session, rising 14 sen to RM1.31 on 60.49 million shares changing hands.
Also leading the actives was Ta Win, flat at three sen after 48.8 million shares done while NexG gained 0.5 sen to 26 sen with 43.38 million shares crossed.
Overall market turnover was 1.86 billion shares changing hands for RM1.44bil.
In Asia, a surge in the Nasdaq overnight sparked a rally in tech shares, although the optimism remained brief in light of caution over upcoming US inflation data and anticipated developments in the ongoing trade war.
China's composite index was down 0.44% to 3,357 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.74% to 23,426.
Japans' Nikkei rose 0.34% to 36,946 and Singapore's Straits Times was down 0.06% to 3,830.
