KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices on Bursa Malaysia forged higher as investors placed bets that developed markets would halt their interest rate hike cycles for the remainder of the year even as global central banks are scheduled to announce policy decisions this week.
Following the rally in the previous session, the FBM KLCI was up 11.04 points to 1,460.97 at midday.
There was a broad market rally with 491 gainers compared to 316 decliners.
Trading volume was 2.08 billion shares valued at RM1.09bil.
Bank counters were among the most improved as Maybank rose five sen to RM9.09, Public Bank jumped six sen to RM4.24, CIMB added four sen to RM5.77 and Hong Leong Bank climbed eight sn to RM19.30.
CelcomDigi gained 10 sen to RM4.38 whie Maxis added six sen to RM4.09.
PETRONAS Chemicals meanwhile put on 11 sen to RM7.30.
Among leading gainers on the market were MBM Resources up 17 sen to RM4.08, Greatec rising 12 sne to RM4.79 and Oriental Food Industries
jumping 11 sen to RM1.64.
Top actives included Dnex up two sen to 44.5 sen, CN Asia adding 0.5 sen to 19 sen and Widad unchanged at 45 sen.
Meanwhile, key Asian markets were also higher on evidence the US labour market was cooling, suggesting that Fed tightening measures were taking effect.
China's composite index was up 0.9% to 3,057 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng surged 1.7% to 17,962.
Japan's Nikkei climbed 2.5% to 32,733 and South Korea's Kospi surged 4.2% to 2,467 following a ban on the short-selling of stocks to calm market turmoil.
