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KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia stayed slightly positive at midday as regional markets fought to stay optimistic over Beijing's attempts to shore up the ailing economy.
News that the world's second-largest economy had recorded a second month of deflation in January worsened fears of prolonged economomic slowdown.
However, Chinese markets remained on a rally, spurred on by a meeting between Chinese president Xi Jinping and top financial regulators.
At 12.30pm, Malaysia's benchmark FBM KLCI was up 2.55 points to 1,515.66 while the number of gainers on the market outpaced losers 419 to 346.
The trading volume was 1.61 billion shares valued at RM887.48mil.
Some blue chips leading the market included CIMB up six sen to RM6.26, Axiata rising six sen to RM2.77 and Kuala Lumpur Kepong gaining 30 sen to RM22.32.
In other stocks, Carlsberg rose 28 sen to RM19.72 while Sunway Construction surged 18 sen to RM2.65 and LPI Capital gained 12 sen to RM12.58.
Of actives, PHB was flat at 0.5 sen, UCrest down one sen to 12 sen and Sarawak Cable up 0.5 sen to 13 sen.
In Asian markets, the Shanghai Composite Index was up 1.15% to 2,862.31 and blue-chip CSI300 rose 0.4% to 3,356.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.9% to 15,941.
Japan's Nikkei Index, however, surged 2.1% to 36,878 while South Korea's Kospi added 0.4% to 2,620.