KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI arrived at its highest in nearly four years as a surge in banking counters kept the benchmark on a strong rally.
At the lunch break, the index was up 22.7 points to 1,674.99, its highest since December 2020, with heavyweights such as Maybank, CIMB and Public Bank pulling the market higher.
Banking stocks are in focus this week as their financial report cards are due out in the closing days of the second-quarter results period.
Maybank, which will deliver its results during the lunch break, rose 20 sen to RM10.90, while Hong Leong Bank, which is also yet to announced its results, jumped 54 sen to RM20.70.
CIMB, which typically reports its performance towards the end of the period, climbed 35 sen to RM8.28.
There were also other strong performers on the market, including Tenaga Nasional up 12 sen to RM14.04 and CelcomDigi rising 12 sen to RM3.73.
The small caps and lower liners on the market, meanwhile, remained under selling pressure as reflected in the negative market breadth of 559 decliners against 439 gainers.
Of the market sectors, only five were positive, with the most gains recorded in financial services, while the remaining eight sectors slipped into negative territory.
Share turnover in the early session was 2.3 billion changing hands for RM2.21bil.
Of the active counters, Luster was unchanged at 7.5 sen, Notion dropped two sen to 87 sen and ACE Market debutant Vesetec gained 20.5 sen to 45.5 sen.
In regional markets, there was some slight profit-taking as investors awaited the release of Nvidia's results.
The bellwether has led the narrative for AI stocks, although investors worry that the second-quarter result will fall short of satisfying inflated expectations.
In Japan, the Nikkei index was flat at 38,281, while China's composite index slid 0.22% to 2,842.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 1% to 17,700 and Singapore's Straits Times fell 0.22% to 3,391.
