KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 13): The Malaysian stock market continued its positive drive for the second consecutive day, albeit at lower volume as investors are still hesitant to engage in any transactions.

The FBM KLCI closed 2.85 points or 0.16% higher at 1,833.02 today. Market breadth was positive with 495 gainers compared with 409 losers.

JF Apex Securities Bhd said trading volume decreased to 1.62 billion shares worth RM2.44 billion compared with yesterday’s 1.8 billion shares worth RM2.27 billion. "The performance of our local bourse was lifted by buying interest in heavyweight counters such as Maxis Bhd, AMMB Holdings Bhd and Hap Seng Consolidated Bhd."

Areca Capital Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Danny Wong Teck Meng said the local market is still cautious of the US markets' rebound.

"Investors are going through the ripple effects of the aftermath of last week's market sell-down in the US. I believe the market will remain relatively quiet until next week as earnings season kicks off," he told theedgemarkets.com.  

Wong added that institutional investors led the buying today.

The top gainers were British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Bhd, Nestle (Malaysia) Bhd and Heineken Malaysia Bhd, while top losers were Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd, Tasek Corp Bhd and Panasonic Manufacturing Malaysia Bhd.

Regionally, Asian stocks closed higher. Reuters reported that MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 1.1% after sliding to its lowest level since Dec 11 on Friday.

The Singapore's STI was up 0.89%, South Korea's KOSPI climbed 0.41%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Composite Index jumped 1.45% to 4,130.42 points.