KUALA LUMPUR (April 13): The FBM KLCI rose 0.54% at mid-morning today in line with the rally at most regional markets.

At 10am, the FBM KLCI rose 9.39 points to 1,724.39.

The top gainers included PIE Industrial Bhd, DanaInfra Nasional Bhd, British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Bhd, Guinness Anchor Bhd, Public Bank Bhd, PPB Group Bhd, UMW Holdings Bhd, AMMB Holdings Bhd, KLCC Property Holdings Bhd and Astral Asia Bhd.

The actives included Sumatec Resources Bhd, Vivocom Intl Bhd, Bumi Armada Bhd, Tiger Synergy Bhd, Globaltec Technology Bhd, AirAsia Bhd, Bioalpha Technology Holdings Bhd and RHB International Bhd.

The decliners included Bursa Malaysia Bhd, Pestech International Bhd, Perusahaan Sadur Timah Malaysia (Perstima) Bhd, TIME dotCom Bhd, Hartalega Holdings Bhd, Asia File Corporation Bhd and Scientex Bhd.

Asian share markets rallied on Wednesday as a revival in risk appetite knocked back the yen and oil ran into only modest profit-taking after reaching a major chart milestone that augured well for further gains ahead, according to Reuters.

Whether sentiment hangs together could depend on China trade data due later in the session. Forecasts favour some improvement in exports and imports in March after a dire February, which would likely underpin commodities, it said.

Hong Leong IB Research said today, the local key bourse is likely to gain buying momentum amid jump in crude oil prices and surge in Dow overnight.

"We believe focus of the market today will be on O&G (oil and gas) counters given the surge in crude oil prices in the last three sessions, potentially leading to strong bullish momentum in O&G counters.

"Hence, traders could watch out for O&G stocks for trading purposes," it said.