KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI ended the early session higher, although it remained off the five-point lead at the start of the day.
At 12.30pm, the key index was up 1.99 points to 1,637.31, indicating some upside sentiment remained despite the prevailing caution over the meeting of central bankers at the Jackson Hole symposium tomorrow.
Some positive developments in the domestic economy also helped to shore up sentiment, including a below-expected 2% inflation rate in July, which represented no change from the previous month, and news of Amazon's RM29.2bil digital infrastructure investment in Malaysia
While the blue chips were in demand, lower liners on Bursa Malaysia saw profit-taking.
The breadth of stock counters was negative with 545 decliners compared to 377 gainers, and six of the 13 market sectors ending in the red.
The share turnover was 2.19 billion changing hands for RM1.42bil.
Among the FBM KLCI stocks, YTL Power led the charge with a 35 sen climb to RM4.10 after it announced a set of positive results yesterday.
Also having released their report cards recently, PETRONAS Dagangan jumped 48 sen to RM20.22, Kuala Lumpur Kepong gained 28 sen to RM20.94 while Maxis added five sen to RM3.58.
Biomass fuel producer Elridge Energy topped the actives list upon its debut on the ACE Market with 219.38 million shares changing hands. The share was up 8.5 sen to 37.5 sen.
Other actives included Velocity, losing 0.5 sen to 5.5 sen and Cape EMS, dropping two sen to 40.5 sen.
Elsewhere in region, markets were mildly positive on the back of Wall Street's overnight performance.
Japan's Nikkei rose 0.12% to 38,011 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.4% to 17,460.
China's composite index was flat at 2,855 while Singapore's Straits Times shed 0.35% to 3,361.
