KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI leapt higher in early trade as bank shares took flight ahead of their quarterly results announcements this week.
At the lunch break, the benchmark index was up 11.71 points to 1,650.67, amid jumps in the share prices of banking heavyweights such as Maybank and Public Bank.
The buying, however, was mostly confined to the heavyweight counters with investors opting to take profit out of small caps.
There were 514 decliners on the market overall compared to 409 gainers, while nearly half the sector indices registered falls.
Trading volume was 1.72 billion shares valued at RM1.36bil.
The country's leading banks, Maybank, gained 12 sen to RM10.66 while Public Bank rose 15 sen to RM4.66 and CIMB jumped six sen to RM7.95.
RHB Bank, which is due to release its results at noon, rose one sen to RM5.94, while Hong Leong Bank gained four sen to RM20.14.
Nestle Malaysia descended below the RM100 mark after losing RM1.08 to RM99.92 amid a weak consumer outlook.
Among the top active counters, Velesto
rose 0.5 sen to 22 sen, Elridge gained 2.5 sen to 47.5 sen and Cape EMS fell 0.5 sen to 38 sen.
Elsewhere, Asian market indices fell ahead of an earnings announcement from AI bellwether Nvidia and escalating conflict in the Middle East.
Japan's Nikkei was an outperformer, rising 0.2% to 38,184 while China's composite index dropped 0.36% to 2,845 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dipped 0.27% to 17,750.
Singapore's Straits Times Index shed 0.29% to 3,386.
