Furthermore, a dealer said market sentiment was lifted by the better Wall Street’s performance overnight.

At 3.15pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 13.20 points higher at 1,648.51 from Tuesday’s close of 1,635.31, after opening 0.63 of-a-point better at 1,635.94.

Overall market breadth stayed favourable with 366 gainers and 284 losers, while 397 counters remained unchanged, 857 untraded and 40 others suspended.

Volume stood at 1.33 billion units valued at RM1.14 billion.

Among heavyweights, Maybank rose three sen to RM9.25, Public Bank gained 28 sen to RM24.54, Tenaga was 12 sen better at RM12.82 and Petronas Chemicals lost three sen to RM9.12.

Of actives, Sapura Energy eased half-a-sen to 29.5 sen, Hibiscus Petroleum was 7.5 sen weaker at 78.5 sen and Genting Malaysia jumped 21 sen to RM3.04.

The FBM Emas Index was 81.06 points better at 11,244.14, the FBMT 100 Index improved 80.84 points to 11,161.15, the FBM 70 increased 58.89 points to 12,757.35, the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 59.87 points to 11,128.12 and the FBM Ace Index climbed 48.91 points to 4,238.02.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index put on 90.84 points to 17,110.90, the Plantation Index gained 144.40 points to 6,632.31 and the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 0.22 of of-a-point to 164.48.