KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's benchmark stock index climbed on Monday as China defied expectations of an interest rate cut but injected fresh funds into the banking system.

       At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 8.67 points to 1,496.01 while the overall market was positive with 463 gainers compared to 417 decliners.

       Trading over the morning sessions saw 2.94 billion shares exchanging hands for RM1.55bil.

       Blue chips saw active trading with Genting rising six sen to RM4.76 and Gneting Malaysia rising three sne to RM2.73.

       YTL Power was up four sen to RM3.72 and YTL Corp added one sen to RM2.37.

       Press Metal climbed eight sen to RM4.92, Tenaga Nasional added eight sen to RM10.42 ad Sime Darby was up six sen to RM2.50.

       Of actives, Minetec was down 1.5 sen to 18 sen, Hong Seng rose 0.5 sen to two sen and Ekovest added 0.5 sen to 59.5 sen.

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       In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei was up 1.2% to 36,000 while South Korea's Kospi was flat at 2,523.

       China's composite index gained 0.4% to 2,892 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.1% to 16,219.