KUALA LUMPUR (March 6): The FBM KLCI pared some of its gains at the midday break today, but managed to stay up 0.31%.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 5.82 points to 1,848.44. The index had earlier risen to a high of 1,849.31.

Gainers led losers by 379 to 241, while 588 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 1.51 billion shares valued at RM1.26 billion.

The top gainers included Nestle (M) Bhd, British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, Hengyuan Refining Company Bhd, Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd, Muda Holdings Bhd, Apex Healthcare Bhd, Bursa Malaysia Bhd, Scientex Bhd and Press Metal Aluminium Holdings Bhd.

The actives included HB Global Ltd, Wegmans Holdings Bhd, NWP Holdings Bhd, Trive Property Group Bhd, DGB Asia Bhd, Sumatec Resources Bhd, Sino Hua-An International Bhd and Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd.

The losers included Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd, Petronas Dagangan Bhd, Rapid Synergy Bhd, Batu Kawan Bhd, Petronas Gas Bhd, Boustead Heavy Industries Corp Bhd and Pos Malaysia Bhd.

Affin Hwang IB senior associate director and head of retail research Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan said US stocks rose with the dollar while Treasuries fell, as investors perceived Trump’s tough tariff talks might not lead to the rising of severe protectionist policies globally.

He said the S&P 500 index rose by 1.1% to 2,720.94, while the Dow gained 336.70 points (1.4%) to 24,874.76.

“Despite several sharp sell-offs occurring in the past few weeks, the equity market is still able to stage steady and higher lows’ rebounds, indicating outstanding resilience of stocks.

“Going forward, it is anticipated investors might see more upward surprises than downward in the global equity markets.

“For the local market, investors’ sentiments remained mixed between better earnings growth of FBM KLCI index components, plus GE14 rally and global soft markets. Nonetheless, this week, we anticipate local market to edge higher — buy quality stocks on price weakness,” Dr Nazri said.