KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI maintained its lead as it entered the lunch break as regional equities rose on optimism the Federal Reserve chair would hint at easing measures later in remarks to Congress later in the day.
At 12.30pm, the key index was up 5.49 points to 1,616.51 after trading in a 5.54-point trading band of 1,613.56 to 1,618.02.
Despite the positive performance of blue chips, the broader market remained negative with 562 decliners compared to 448 gainers and 506 stocks unchanged.
The trading volume was 2.71 billion shares valued at RM1.79bil.
Leading gainers on the market included Tenaga Nasional, which rose 18 sen to RM14.40 after it announced plans to expand its renewable energy asset division in the UK.
Bank heavyweights were also higher with CIMB rising five sen to RM7, Public Bank gaining six sen to MR4.10, Hong Leong Bank climbing six sen to RM19.26 and RHB adding one sen to RM5.52.
Meanwhile, Press Metal
rose eight sen to RM6.04 and Sime Darby gained five sen to RM2.68.
Of actives, Johor Plantation was up seven sen to 91 sen, marking its debut on the Main Market with over 131 million shares traded.
Bumi Armada was up two sen to 60 sen with 67.02 million shares done while K1 gained three sen to 32.5 sen after 54.65 million shares crossed.
In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei hit a new record after surging 2.17% to 41,665 as shares in semiconductor stocks jumped.
China's composite index was flat at 2,922 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.46% to 17,443.
Singapore's Straits Times index rose 0.4% to 3,417.
