KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI stayed slightly under at midday despite having started the day with a surge in buying activity that sparked a jump in trading volume.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark index was down 1.41 points to 1,636.39, but remained on track to closing out the week with a 1.7% gain.
The market's return to a nine-month high came as foreign funds flowed back into Bursa Malaysia amid growing bets the US Federal Reserve will further slash interest rates this year.
Of the traded stocks, 446 shares rose and 487 fell, giving the market a slightly negative spread.
However, the uptick in trading volume to 2.65 billion shares at midday affirmed growing traffic on the market on the heels of yesterday's total surpassing the four billion shares threshold.
The value of the transactions in the early session amounted to RM1.24bil.
After rallying earlier in the week, financial services eased off as investors took profit from the sector. At present levels, the sector remains more than 2% higher over the week.
A further five sectors were in negative territory at midday, including healthcare and utilities, which were both beneficiaries of the recent rally.
The technology sector, however, is proving the week's biggest winner as it is ending the week on a lift despite having put on nearly 9% since the start of the week.
Among individual stocks, SCIB was among the day's most actively traded, rising 4.5 sen to 21 sen after 72.96 million shares moved.
The counter was seen rising after YTL Cement (Sarawak) Sdn Bhd offered to acquire the entire shareholding of the company's concrete manufacturing arm for RM113mil.
Other active stocks included Zetrix AI, dropping one sen to 84.5 sen with 57.8 million shares crossed and VS Industry, sliding one sen to 59 sen after 42.94 million shares done.
In regional markets, equities remained in demand as recent US economic data have all but assured traders that the Fed will cut the lending rate by two quarters of a point this year.
CME FedWatch indicates traders are betting there's an 87.5% probability the central bank will reduce the benchmark by 50 basis points come December this year.
In Japan, the Nikkei index marched 1.57% higher while China's composite index was up 0.52%. Both indices were up over the week by 1.2% and 2.1% respectively.
China's CSI 300, however, was a bigger weekly gainer, rising over 3% since last Friday.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 1% for the day at the time of writing, but remained 2.85% in the green over the week.
South Korea's stock exchange is closed for a national holiday.
