KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI pared gains as the market halted for the lunch break with investors taking profit after strong gains from the recent rally.
While benefiting from Wall Street's positive overnight close, Bursa Malaysia has been on a tear as optimism grew over economic prospects and the firmer ringgit.
The benchmark index was up 5.61 points to 1,746.49, mainly on the back of Maybank, up 16 sen to RM11.96, MISC rising 13 sen to RM8.13 and Tenaga Nasional, climbing 12 sen to RM14.06.
Foreign funds have flowed into the domestic market for four consecutive weeks, leading blue chips to multi-year highs.
The ticker board however showed lower liners were being left out of the rally with declining stocks outweighing gainers 635 to 373.
Only five of the 13 market sectors were positive with plantations leading the advance.
Of leading actives, Pharmaniaga
rose two sen to 30.5 sen, Zetrix AI gained one sen to 81.5 sen and Gamuda dove 27 sen to RM4.15.
Meanwhile, regional stock markets rebounded from the previous day's decline even as the metal markets retraced heavy losses after a volatile session.
Japan's Nikkei rose 3.98% to 54,701 and South Korea's Kospi surged 5.63% to 5,228.
In China, the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.38% to 4,031 and the blue-chip CSI300 gained rose a marginal 0.08% to 4,609.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.32% to 26,861.
