The rally has taken the market benchmark to its highest since February 2019 as it traded within an intraday band of 1,698.79 and 1,705.54.
At 12.30pm, the index was up 8.74 points to 1,704.18.
Of the banking leaders, Maybank eased off slightly to end eight sen higher at RM11.02, CIMB gained nine sen to ARM8.30, RHB jumped 15 sen to RM8.05 and Public bank added four sen to RM4.63.
Sector-wise, the bank rally drove financial services stocks 0.84% higher to a record level of 20,354.91.
Other sectors also benefiting from the rally included utilities, construction and REITs.
The broader market, however, did not keep pace with the blue chips - there were 464 gainers compared to 502 decliners - as investor interest in small caps remained subdued.
Trading volume was 2.09 bilion shares valued at RM1.63bil.
Meanwhile, ACE market debutant Semico Capital surged 23.5 sen to 48.5 sen, racking up turnover of 104.26 million shares to be the second most actively traded counter in morning trading.
IJM was also heavily traded after it was announced that Sunway was proposing a takeover for RM3.15 a share. The construction firm rose 10 sen to RM2.85, paring back gains after hitting a high of RM2.97 earlier in the day.
In regional markets, Japan's Nikkei soared 3.33% to a record 53,667 amid speculation of snap elections to be held in February.
Mainland Chinese markets were mostly flat, with the Shanghai Composite index unchanged at 4,163 and the CSI300 also unmoved at 4,790.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.01% to 26,877.
