KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's benchmark stock index jumped on Thursday as key markets in the region stumbled amid fears investors had bet too high on US interest rate cuts.
The release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's most recent policy meeting offered no clues as to when the central bank will begin its much-anticipated rate cuts, disappointing investors hoping for a March start.
However, Malaysia's market extended its rally from the previous session on the back of gains in Tenaga Nasional and heavyweight bank counters.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI ended 7.99 points higher at 1,470.36.
The overall market was positive with 543 gainers compared to 407 decliners as investors bought up lower liners amid the growing positive sentiment.
Trading volume was 3.77 billion shares valued at RM1.92bil.
Tenaga jumped 24 sen to RM10.30 over the morning session while Maybank rose eight sen to RM8.97 to lead the blue chips higher.
CIMB gained five sen to RM5.95, Hong Leong bank added 16 sen to RM18.66 and RHB climbed five sen to RM5.46.
Meanwhile, decliners included MISC down seven sen to RM7.33, Press Metal
falling 10 sen to RM4.84 and IOI shedding four sen to RM3.96. YTL Power surged 19 sen to RM2.99
On the broader market, notable gainers included Dutch Lady adding 24 sen to RM25, Gamuda gaining 11 sen to RM4.80 and Edaran surging 18 sen to RM1.39.
Top actives were Minetec up 1.5 sen to 19 sen, Ekovest gaining two sen to 56 sen and Asdion rising 2.5 sen to 13 sen.
Regionally, China's composite index was down 0.9% to 2,941 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.5% to 16,564.
Japan's Nikkei slid 0.75% to 33,212 and South Korea's Kospi fell 0.9% to 2,583.
