KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI managed a slight bounce on Thursday morning as it halted its descent following Wall Street's optimism over rate cuts.
US equities rallied overnight as Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said in a testimony to Congress that it would monitor inflation data to determine the timing and depth of rate cuts this year.
In focus today is Bank Negara's latest monetary policy decision, scheduled for release at 3pm, with economists predicting no change to the overnight policy rate.
At 12.30pm, the domestic market was poised to snap two days of losses as investors picked up blue chips after the recent bout of profit-taking.
The FBM KLCI rose 2.32 points to 1,533.83 while the broader market had an even spread of 413 gainers to 417 decliners and 423 counters unchanged.
The trading volume was 1.89 billion shares changing hands for RM1.17bil.
Among the gainers, IHH rose seven sen to RM6.03, CelcomDigi added seven sen to RM4.25 and CIMB climbed four sen to RM6.55.
Top actives included Widad unchanged at 9.5 sen, Powerwell up four sen to 35 sen and TWL flat at 3.5 sen.
In China, investors were unimpressed by trade figures that showed shipments to and from the world's second largest economy in January and February beat analyst forecasts.
The Shanghai Composite Index sank 0.2% to 3,305 while the blue-chip CSI300 dropped 0.3% to 3,539.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng, meanwhile, fell 0.5% to 16,361 amid the souring sentiment over China's economy.
Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei eased 0.8% to 39,762 after hitting records levels of trading earlier in the week.
South Korea's Kospi rose 0.1% to 2,643.
