However, Astro gave up all its gains from yesterday as investors were disappointed there were still no leads on market speculation of a corporate exercise involving the divestment of 20% associate Sun Direct TV, which could lead to special dividends of as much as RM1.05 a share.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI rose 6.45 points to 1,208.73. Turnover was 261.07 million shares valued at RM384.13 million. There were 228 gainers, 282 losers and 269 stocks unchanged.

While Japan's Nikkei 225 was in the red, down 0.88% at 10,420.87; Singapore's Straits Times Index was almost unchanged at 2,681.32 but Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index advanced 0.8% to 21,237.48 and Shanghai's Composite Index added 1.2% to 2,960.

Light crude oil rose 37 cents to US$72.31 and crude palm oil futures gained RM6 to RM2,177.

Among banking stocks, CIMB rose 32 sen to RM10.84, Public Bank-F 14 sen to RM10.22, Public Bank 10 sen to RM10.24, Maybank and AMMB eight sen to RM6.62 and RM4.34 while RHB Cap rose two sen to RM5.01.

Tanjong advanced 18 sen to RM15.80, BAT 12 sen to RM45.12 and MISC-F 11 sen to RM8.87.

Talam was the most active with 11.7 million shares done, down 0.5 sen to 8.5 sen.

Genting fell six sen to RM6.91, Genting Singapore-C1 two sen lower at 35 sen while in Singapore, Genting Singapore shares lost two sen to S$1.12.

Astro fell the most, down 17 sen to RM3.48 with 3.15 million shares done; giving up more than the 15 sen it gained the previous day.

Other decliners were Ewein, down 13.5 sen to 86.5 sen, RCI 13 sen to RM1.37 while UMW lost eight sen to RM6.32. Tenaga two sen to RM8.22 while MMC Corp and TM shed one sen each to RM2.50 and RM3.10.