KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI jumped about 1.2% in morning trading amid growing optimism over the economic outlook and ringgit that rallied past the psychologically critical 4.00 mark against the greenback.
As the risk appetite for local blue chips continued to grow, the benchmark index ended the morning session 20.41 points higher at 1,740.4 on the back of strong gains from the heavyweight banks and plantations.
The financial services sector continued its red-hot rally to record levels, with major banking institutions charting record-breaking levels of trading.
Maybank surged 14 sen to a historically high level of RM11.50, while Hong Leong Bank also broke a trading record by putting on 50 sen to RM24.50. RHB added eight sen to RM8.23, hovering near its trading peak of RM8.25. CIMB climbed 27 sen to RM8.57, its highest level in over 14 years.
While the blue chips enjoyed another day in the sun, the lower liners struggled as evident in the market scoreboard that leaned towards the negative.
There was a total of 589 declining stocks compared to 467 gainers, reflecting that the buying support remained lagging in the broader market.
Trading volume was 1.96 billion shares valued at RM1.93bil.
Capital A topped the list of actively trade stocks with 96.8 million shares done. The counter rose 5.5 sen to 60 sen on new it had officially completed its Practice Note 17 regularisation plan.
Sister company AirAsia X
surged 25 sen to RM2.09, with the morning's second-highest traded volume of 54.58mil.
Meanwhile, Press Metal leapt 14 sen to RM7.55 as RHB Investment Bank raised its earnings forecasts on the company on the back of high aluminium prices and a favourable aluminium-to-alumina cost ratio.
The aluminium smelting firm was third most traded with a volume of 37.33 million shares.
In foreign exchange markets, the ringgit picked up momentum after crossing the 4.00 mark against the US dollar on Friday. According to Bank Negara's website, the local currency saw further lift to a middle rate of 3.9695 as at Monday noon.
Looking abroad to major Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei slipped over 2% to 52,728 as talk that the US could aid in intervention measures to support the yen sparked a sell-off in equities.
South Korea's Kospi dipped 0.72% to 4,953.
Mainland China's Shanghai Composite index rose 0.13% to 4,141 and the CSI300 gained 0.36% to 4,729. Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.15% to 26,709.
