FBM KLCI ends morning session higher

KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI clawed back its losses and ended the morning session higher as heavyweights Axiata, Genting and BAT powered through amid a listless market.
At
12.30pm, the local barometer was up marginally to 0.63 points or 0.04%
to 1,707.98 points. Turnover was 345.61 million shares valued at
RM791.08 million. There were 218 gainers, 274 losers and 271 stocks
unchanged.
During the morning session, the FBM KLCI went down 7.1
points to lows of 1,700.25, nearing its 1,700 points psychological
support level.
Rubber glove counters saw substantial amount of trading as bird flu updates in China churned investors' interest.
Top Glove gained 27 sen to RM6.31, Kossan climbed 14 sen to RM3.92, Hartalega inched up 4 sen to RM5.28 and Supermax increased 6 sen to RM2.09.
In a report, Goldman Sachs
expects rates to rise in Malaysia, Korea, China, Thailand, and Taiwan
through the course of the year on better domestic and global outlook. It
said macro implications of Bank of Japan easing likely to be more important than any influence from further foreign buying of Asian debt.
Regional
markets were broadly higher, Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 0.45% to
13,905.51, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index climbed 1.11% to 22,459.59,
Shanghai's Composite Index inched up 0.17% to 2,222.11.
Taiwan's
Taiex declined 0.22% to 8,006.15, South Korea's Kospi gained 0.41% to
1,943.32 and Singapore's Straits Times Index gained 0.26% to 3,331.48.
US light crude oil climbed 47 cents to US$91.90, Brent up 43 cents to US$102.16.
Spot gold was quoted US$14.32 higher at US$1,446.27 per troy ounce.
The
Ringgit strengthened 0.0075 against the dollar to 3.0406, while
benchmark three-month crude palm oil futures was quoted RM26 higher at
RM2315.