KUALA LUMPUR: The domestic market showed the slightest glimmer of optimism on Friday morning as stock tickers were balanced between losers and gainers while the benchmark index ended slightly in the lead.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 1.3 points to 1,537.13, buoyed by the positive spillover effects of a record-charting performance on Wall Street overnight and growing confidence in Asian markets.
Bursa Malaysia registered 405 gainers, 416 losers and 425 unchanged counters at midday. The total trading volume was 1.68 billion shares changing hands for RM1.2bil.
Bursa Malaysia's performance was helped by key markets around Asia, which rallied Friday on renewed confidence that lending costs will decrease over the year.
Analysts project a continued upside bias on domestic equities given recent comments by global policymakers that suggested a decline in lending costs going forward.
Overnight, the European Central Bank had intimated that a rate cut could come as soon as in June, while US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell affirmed on Wednesday that interest rates are expected to come down.
"Taking cue from the lower interest rate scenario, we believe the local bourse should sustain its uptrend and expect the index to hover within the 1,535-1,545 range today," said Rakuten Trade in a morning report.
On the FBM KLCI, banking heavyweight CIMB climbed 12 sen to RM6.64 while AmBank bounced 10 sen higher to RM4.05 to lead gains in the financial services sector.
AmBank, which has lost 6.7% of its value since the start of March, topped the actives list on Bursa Malaysia with 37.8 million shares traded as investors adjusted their holdings on news that Australia's ANZ will be disposing of a 16% stake in the group.
In other sectors, plantations players were also on the rise, including Kuala Lumpur Kepong up eight sen to RM21.98, Sime Darby Plantation
adding two sen to RM2.65 and IOI gaining five sen to RM4.
Energy counter YTL Power slid 16 sen to RM3.67, its lowest level since January, while holding company YTL Corp fell nine sen to RM2.50.
In China, the Shanghai composite index rose 0.1% to 3,030 while the blue-chip CSI300 was down 0.1% to 3,526.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng chalked up 1.2% to 16,428.
Japan's Nikkei, meanwhile, gained 0.8% to 39,897 and South Korea's Kospi rose 0.9% to 2,671.
