KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's FBM KLCI pushed further ahead as investors remained in bullish mode despite the pullback in global markets.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark index was up 6.63 points to 1,483.89 on sustained heavy trading activity as investors flocked to the market on a buying spree.
By the lunch break, there were 3.74 billion shares traded for a value of RM1.88bil.
On the blue-chip index, banks led stock higher with AMMB rising seven sen to RM4.18, CIMB gaining seven sen to RM6.02, Maybank adding one sen to RM9.04 and Public Bank adding four sen to RM4.33.
YTL Power forged higher by 14 sne to RM3.14 while YTL Corp advanced 15 sen to RM2.20.
Meanwhile, laggards included commodities and plantations plays such as PETRONAS Chemicals down seven sen to RM7.23, Sime Darby Plantation
falling six sen to RM4.33 and Press Metal shedding six sen to RM4.83.
Among actives, Hong Seng was up 0.5 sen to three sen, Minetec gained two sen to 23 sen and Luster rose 2.5 sen to nine sen.
In regional markets, equities further declined as investors grew tentative on bets the Federal Reserve would soon start aggressive rate cuts.
China's composite index fell 0.1% to 2,950 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng slid 0.1% to 16,622.
Japan's Nikkei was up 0.7% to 33,523 as it rebounded from recent losses, and South Korea's Kospi shed 0.4% to 2,576.
