KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI remained buoyed over the 1,600 mark at midday as investors expect the US rate-cutting cycle to begin in September and give more fuel to the stock rally.
The odds of a reduction in the Federal lending rate has leapt to 87.3% following Fed chair Jerome Powell's remarks during his speech at Jackson Hole.
As the Dow Jones Industrial Average mounted on a rally to a new record on Friday, Asian stocks are playing catch up with a Monday rally.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 3.8 points to 1,601.27.
Despite the growing positiviey, there was a mixed bag of results on the broader market with 445 advancing issues compared to 452 declining issues.
Trading volume was 1.58 billion shares changing hands for RM1.23bil.
Among gainers, MPI climbed RM2.44 to RM27.46, Nestle rose 50 sen to RM91.64 and Greatec gained 15 sen to RM2.09.
Meanwhile, Magma was the most active counter, slumping 8.5 sen to 22.5 sen as traders further sold down shares in the hospitality group in light of its chairman's involvement with the ongoing MBI International probe.
Meanwhile, Mtouche gained 0.5 sen to five sen while Tanco dropped 0.5 sen to 73 sen.
In Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng led gains after jumping 2.08% to 25,866 and Shanghai's composite index gained 0.86% to 3,858.
Japan's Nikkei rose 0.26% to 42,744 and South Korea's Kospi added 1.06% to 3,202.
