KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia bucked most key regional markets at the midday break on April 24 with the KL Composite Index crossing the 990 level briefly.

Volume surged past the one billion shares mark while interest picked up in banking stocks, especially smaller banks.

At 12.30pm, the KL Composite Index was up 10.03 points to 988.67, but off the intra-morning high of 991.39. Turnover was 1.11 billion shares valued at RM847.25 million.

The breadth of the market was very positive with advancing counters beating decliners 479 to 141 while 192 stocks were unchanged.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.43% to 8,720.14, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 0.4% to 15,148.32 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index 0.8% lower at 1,844.39.

Light crude oil fell 29 cents to US$49.33, crude palm oil prices for third-month delivery fell RM28 to RM2,552 after rallying more than RM100 the previous day. The ringgit strengthened to RM3.5940 to the US dollar.

At Bursa, smaller banking stocks were among the gainers, RHB Capital tose 20 sen to RM4.14, EON Capital 14 sen to RM3.50 and BIMB, which owns Bank Islam, advanced 12.5 sen to RM1.08. The bigger caps Public Bank and BCHB gained 10 sen each to RM8.50 and RM8.10.

Plantations also displayed resilience, with KL Kepong and Far East rising 20 sen each to RM11.50 and RM5.50 and heavyweight Sime Darby 10 sen to RM6.55. Batu kawan fell 10 sen to RM8.15.

KNM was the most active with 79 million shares done, rising one sen to 57 sen.

Lion Corp rose 5.5 sen to 37 sen, Lion Diversified 1.5 sen to 48 sen and Lion Industries 7.5 sen to RM1.07.

BAT was the top loser, down 50 sen to RM44.50. AmResearch downgraded BAT from a Buy to Hold, based on its revised discounted cashflow-valuation of RM42.10 per share following diminishing near-term optimism, as a consequence to steeper than anticipated decline in total legitimate industry volume.

KrisAssets lost 22 sen to RM2.58 with 300 shares done, Hwa Tai 19.5 sen to 43 sen Tanjong 10 sen to RM14.20.