KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 7): The FBM KLCI was up 21.1 points or 1.17% to 1,833.6 after the first hour of afternoon trade on continued bargain hunting after the recent sharp falls.

Total volume stood at 2.48 billion shares valued at RM2.29 billion.

Gainers outweighed decliners by 467 to 445 counters while 471 remained unchanged.

The ringgit, meanwhile, strengthened to 3.9060 against the US dollar after opening at 3.9118. Brent crude futures rose 0.81% to US$67.40 per barrel and Western Texas Intermediate was up 0.46% at US$63.85 per barrel.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd research vice president Vincent Lau said investors are still coming out of the shock from the global equity selldown, and the market would take some time to find its footing.

"Presently, the market is supported by bargain hunting and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's announcement (on improving liquidity in the Malaysian and Singaporean stock exchanges)," he told theedgemarkets.com.

Reuters reported that Asian share markets took back some of their earlier gains today as investors were unnerved by a drop in US stock futures, underscoring lingering anxiety following steep losses in global equities over the past few days.

Investors took their cue from a late rebound on Wall Street, though many had an anxious eye on E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 which were off 0.3% in Asian trading.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was last up 0.8% after rising as much as 2% in early trades.

Japan's Nikkei eased too but was still up 1.6%. Chinese blue chips fell more than 1% while South Korea's KOSPI index was also in the red.