KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 6): The FBM KLCI rose 0.86% at the midday break today in line with the gains at most regional markets.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 14.36 points at 1,661.95.

Advancers led decliners by 470 to 264, while 304 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 1.19 billion shares valued at RM943.52 million.

The top gainers included Nestle (M) Bhd, Petronas Gas Bhd, British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, Batu Kawan Bhd, MISC Bhd, TAHPS Group Bhd, Far East Corporation Bhd, Genting Bhd and Chin Teck Plantations Bhd.

The actively traded stocks included The Media Shoppe Bhd, XOX Bhd, Instacom Group Bhd, KNM Group Bhd, Aemulus Holdings Bhd, Pentamaster Corporation Bhd, Frontken Corporation Bhd and Nexgram Holdings Bhd.

The losers included Magni-Tech Industries Bhd, SCC Holdings Bhd, Carlsberg Brewery (M) Holdings Bhd, Harrisons Holdings (Malaysia) Bhd, IJM Plantations Bhd, MBM Resources Bhd, Pharmaniaga Holdings Bhd, Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd, LTKM Bhd and IQ Group Bhd.

Fading expectations that the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this year and a bounce in oil and commodity prices helped lift Asian stocks to two-week highs on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.9%, touching its highest levels since Sept 18, it said.

BIMB Securities Research said in Asia, key indexes ended mostly higher yesterday, with strong gains in Hong Kong and Japan on expectations Beijing will take steps to accelerate growth.

Back home, the research house said the local market closed higher, in line with regional performance where the FBM KLCI gained 18.79 points or 1.15% to 1,647.59, lifted mainly by telco and banking stocks.

"Trading participation saw net buying by local institutions while local retail and foreign institutions were net sellers.

"We reckon the local market to remain volatile with slight bias to up trend with improved global sentiment and expect to see immediate resistance at 1,655," 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.)