KUALA LUMPUR (July 25): The FBM KLCI defended its gains at mid-morning today, lifted by select blue chips, in line with the gains at most regional markets.

At 10.10am, the FBM KLCI rose 5.74 points to 1,663.16.

The top gainers included British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, Petronas Dagangan Bhd, Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd, Hong Leong Bank Bhd, Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd, PPB Group Bhd, IHH Healthcare Bhd, Cycle & Carriage Bintang Bhd, Genting Malaysia Bhd and Public Bank Bhd.

The actives included TH Heavy Engineering Bhd, KNM Group Bhd, EA Holdings Bhd, Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd, Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd, Inix Technologies Holdings Bhd and AirAsia X Bhd.

The losers included Ajiya Bhd, Hong Leong Industries Bhd, Time dotCom Bhd, Hume Industries Bhd, Can-One Bhd, Aeon Co (M) Bhd, Uzma Bhd and Lii Hen Industries Bhd.

Asian shares held near nine-month highs on Monday as worries over the impact of Britain's Brexit vote eased amid efforts to maintain growth, while the dollar was buoyed by a run of solid US economic data, according to Reuters.

Policy makers from the Group of 20 countries agreed to work to support global growth and better share the benefits of trade, in a weekend meeting dominated by the impact of Britain's exit from Europe and fears of rising protectionism, it said.

Hong Leong IB Research said the breakdown below 200-d SMA at 1,667 coupled with weakening technical indicators may spur the FBM KLCI lower on profit taking consolidation as sentiment would continue to be dogged by the revival of 1MDB saga, heightened terrorism in Malaysia, potential fall in the ringgit and expectations of another lacklustre August reporting season.

"Nevertheless, positives such as recent optimism of better-than-expected US economic data and results, hopes of more monetary and fiscal stimulus measures from policy makers and governments and expectations of more mega project roll-outs by Malaysian government in the near term to stimulate slowing economy may cushion sharp fall in the FBM KLCI," it said.