KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI eased slightly off an intraday high as it entered the lunch break, with the regional rally in full swing on the back of Japan's post-election market and overall relief following Wall Street's rebound last Friday.
At the end of morning trading, the benchmark index was up 15.07 points or about 0.9% to 1,747.9 as Asian markets surged after a decisive electoral win by Japan's incumbent Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
According to observers, the pro-stimulus conservative politican is expected to embark on aggressive fiscal spending to bolster Japan's stagnating economy, leading to bullish expectations for stocks.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei climbed 4.15% to 56,505, topping the 55,000 level for the first time.
South Korea's Kospi gained 3.97% to 5,291.
In China, Shanghai's composite index rose 1.17% to 4,113 and the CSI300 added 1.42% to 4,709.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.45% to 26,945.
On Bursa Malaysia, the rise of the FBM KLCI was underpinned by a broader market rally of 527 advancing issues compared to 218 decliners.
Trading volume climbed to 1.83 billion shares valued at RM1.3bil
All but one of the market's 13 sectors were positive, with property and utility shares jumping over 1% each. Financial services was no slouch, adding 0.67% by midday.
Among the blue chips, MISC rose 16 sen to RM8.16, IHH gained 13 sen to RM8.93 and Tenaga Nasional added 14 sen to RM14.08.
Zetrix AI, surging 9.5 sen to 78 sen, rose to the top of the actives list with 109.29 million shares done.
MMAG was up 0.5 sen to 5.5 sen and AmBest gained 1.5 sen to 36 sen.
