KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI stayed positive entering the lunch break despite a slow start as bank counters shored up the index.
At 12.30pm, the key index was up 4.44 points to 1,589.82 amid a broadly positive market of 534 gainers compared to 395 decliners and 475 stocks unchanged.
The index had traded within an eight-point band over the course of the morning, between 1,581.76 and 1,590.74.
Market turnover was 2.81 billion shares changing hands for RM1.53bil.
Of the market sectors, financial services, utilities and healthcare saw the most gains, while plantations and telcos saw the steepest declines.
Banks that led gains included Hong Leong Bank jumping 12 sen to RM19.28, CIMB rising eight sen to RM6.76 and Maybank adding five sen to RM9.96.
Meanwhile, YTL Power rose 12 sen to RM4.79, YTL Corp added nine sen to RM3.38 and PETRONAS Gas jumped 14 sen to RM18.18.
Of actives, Ingenieur was flat at 6.5 sen, JCY rose 4.5 sen to 74 sen and SBH Marine added 3.5 sen to 32 sen.
In key Asian markets, investors were jittery ahead of the US personal consumption expenditures report, the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation, due out on Friday.
China's composite index slid 0.32% to 2,940, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was flat at 18,069 and Singapore's Straits Times was little changed at 3,325.
Japan's Nikkei rose 1.32% to 39,685.
