KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 29): The FBM KLCI pared some of its gains at the midday break today on some mild profit-taking.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 7.35 points at 1,678.08 points. The index had earlier risen to its intra-morning high of 1,682.82 points.

Losers overtook gainers by 365 to 334, while 362 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 1.25 billion shares valued at RM795.17 million.

The top gainers included British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, Petronas Gas Bhd, Selangor Properties Bhd, Petron Malaysia Refining & Marketing Bhd, LPI Capital Bhd, Top Glove Corporation Bhd, My E.G. Services Bhd, Inari Amertron Bhd and Lafarge Malaysia Bhd.

The actively traded stocks included Hubline Bhd, Borneo Oil Bhd, Kim Teck Cheong Consolidated Bhd, Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd, Emico Holdings Bhd and Daya Materials Bhd.

The top losers included Panasonic Malaysia Manufacturing Bhd, Allianz (M) Bhd, P.I.E. Industrial Bhd, Petronas Dagangan Bhd, Lay Hong Bhd, Apollo Food Holdings Bhd, V.S. Industry Bhd, Kim Loong Resources Bhd and Power Root Bhd.

Asian stocks poked into positive territory on Tuesday, shrugging off early losses as Chinese shares stabilised a day after marking their biggest loss in a month and crude prices took back some lost ground, according to Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.1%, but it remained on track to mark a loss of around 12% for 2015, a year that saw it log a more than seven-year high in April, it said.

AffinHwang Capital Research said local stocks are expected to trend higher.

"ECB (European Central Bank) hints more stimulus despite recent US rate hike.

"Technically, stocks on Bursa Malaysia are ready to test higher resistances," it said.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company's profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)