KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 18): The FBM KLCI rose 1.19% at the midday break on Thursday, advancing in line with regional markets.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 20.30 points to 1,702.20.

The top gainers included Ducth Lady Milk Industries Bhd, Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd, Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd, Petronas Dagangan Bhd, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd, Tahps Group Bhd, Tasek Corporation Bhd, Tenaga Nasional Bhd, Maxis Bhd and Sime Darby Bhd.

Sumatec Resources Bhd was the most actively traded counter with 79.37 million shares done.The stock gained 4.35% or one sen to 24 sen.

The other actives included Sona Petroleum Bhd, Perisai Petroleum Teknologi Bhd, Only World Group Holdings Bhd, KNM Group Bhd, SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd and Bumi Armada Bhd.

The decliners included Asia File Corporation Bhd, Hong Leong Capital Bhd, Genting Malaysia Bhd, KLCC Property Holdings Bhd, Public Bank Bhd, Lafarge Malaysia Bhd and Wing Tai Malaysia Bhd.

Asian share markets rallied on Thursday after U.S. stocks enjoyed their strongest session this year when the Federal Reserve sounded upbeat on the economy and promised to be patient in removing policy stimulus, according to Reuters.

The jitters of recent days also calmed a touch as Russia managed to stabilise its rouble, if only for now, and oil prices eked out a rare bounce. As risk aversion ebbed, U.S. bond yields rose and the dollar regained some lost ground, it said.

AffinHwang Capital Research said the FBM KLCI rebounded 7.96 points or 0.5% yesterday and is anticipated to rebound further as the overall market conditions and sentiments improved.

The research house said that after reaching “the bulls’ camping ground” i.e our anticipated strong support level at 1690-1670 points range yesterday the market had been futher bolstered by the strengthening ringgit (RM3.47 against US dollar), rebounding crude oil prices (Brent rebounded to above US$60/bbl from US$58/bbl previously).   

AffinHwang said that for short term view, the current rebound was very much technical in nature, hence might be full of “zig zags” in an attempt to possibly close recent “Gaps”.

“Whereas for medium and long term investors, bargain huntings anticipated to be the talking points from this week onward.

“Potential stocks to be in focus: Index link and stocks with high dividend yield.

“Risk: Downward trend still intact, both for short and medium term, and no reversal signal appear yet, thus downward bias remains,” it said.