KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 28): The FBM KLCI reversed its early losses and climbed 0.53% at mid-morning, lifted by select blue chips on year-end window dressing activities.

At 10am, the FBM KLCI rose 8.93 points to 1,672.44 points.

The gainers included Panasonic Malaysia Manufacturing Bhd, Apollo Food Holdings Bhd, Multi-Code Electronics Industries (M) Bhd, Petron Malaysia Refining & Marketing Bhd, Nestle (M) Bhd, SAM Engineering & Equipment Bhd, LPI Capital Bhd and SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd and Tenaga Nasional Bhd.

The actively traded stocks included Comintel Corporation Bhd, Sumatec Resources Bhd, Icon Offshore Bhd, Iris Corpiration Bhd, Kim Teck Cheong Consolidated Bhd, KNM Group Bhd, SapuraKencana and APFT Bhd.

The losers included Lay Hong Bhd, Warisan TC Bhd, KLCC Property Holdings Bhd, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd, Far East Corporation Bhd, Panasonic Malaysia Manufacturing Bhd and MISC Bhd.

Asian stocks were steady in quiet trade on Monday, drawing heart after a rebound in crude oil that took prices away from multi-year lows, according to Reuters.

Investors across asset markets were without some of the usual leads as markets in Europe and North America were closed on Friday for Christmas, it said.

Hong Leong IB Research said trading momentum could slow in a holiday-shortened week (Bursa Malaysia will be closed on Jan 1), but overall sentiment would remain firm, spurred by positive technical indicators, seasonal year-end window dressing rebound, ValueCap factor, positive optimism of monetary and fiscal policies easing from China and ongoing progresses of 1Malaysia Development Bhd saga.

(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.)