KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLC stayed positive, mainly on the back of big gains in utility heavyweights, as the corporate results period edged closer to an end.
As trading halted for the end of the early session, the benchmark index was up 5.06 points to 1,658.61 after trading within a 13-point range.
The broader market sectors were mostly positive, with plantations and industrial products and services being outliers in negative territory and financial services putting in a flat performance.
There was also some buying interest returning to lower liners, with the market breadth recording 592 gainers compared to 436 decliners.
Among the leading blue chips, Tenaga Nasional rose 44 sen to RM14.38 and YTL Power climbed 13 sen to RM3.79. CIMB, whose, second-quarter result is due to be released this evening, jumped 12 sen to RM8.12.
Other banks, meanwhile, saw some profit-taking after their recent run-up. Maybank dropped eight sen to RM10.60, Hong Leong Bank shed 12 sne to RM21.16 and RHB shed three sen to RM6.08.
Of actives, Velesto
was unchanged at 21 sen, Barakah rose one sen to eight sen and Notion VTech gained 0.5 sen to 94 sen.
Regionally, key markets were on the rise following an upward revision of the US second-quarter economic growth forecast.
Japan's Nikkei rose 0.31% to 38,481, China's composite index gained 1.34% to 2,860 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.176% to 18,100.
Singapore's Straits Times Index added 0.55% to 3,423.
