KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia remained higher at midday, in line with investor positivity over the growing likelihood of a US rate cut in September.
At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) advanced 6.25 points to 1,624.63 from Wednesday's close of 1,618.38.
The index opened 2.78 points higher at 1,621.16 and moved between 1,621.10 and 1,628.35 throughout the morning session.
Turnover was at 3.038 billion shares valued at RM2.117 billion.
Malacca Securities Research expects the buying interest to stay firm supported by the performance on Wall Street.
In the US, the firm said the comments from Jerome Powell in the two day testimony, where he expressed concerns that the higher-for-longer interest rate environment may slow down the economic growth have boosted the appetite in the stock markets.
"Still, investors will be monitoring the upcoming Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI) data later today and tomorrow," it said in a note.
Of actives stocks on the broader market, Dataprep Holdings Bhd lost one sen to RM23.5 sen, SMTrack Bhd rose 0.5 sen to four sen and ATA IMS Bhd climbed five sen to 60 sen.