KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's blue=chip index stayed in positive territory in the morning session despite a wider market retreat in technology counters and lower lines.

       At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 2.7 points to 1,409.39. There were 489 decliners on the broader market compared to 307 gainers.

       Trading vollume was 1.86 billion shares valued at RM980.87mil.

       On the benchmark index, plantation players were the most improved with Kuala Lumpur Kepong rising 20 sne to RM22.90, IOI gaining six sne to RM4.05 and Sime Darby Plantation adding six sen to RM4.46.

       Banks were also lifted with CIMB gaining four sen to RM5.26 and Public Bank adding one sen to RM3.98 although Maybank slid two sen to RM8.78.

       Technology stocks however continued to lose ground following the steep decline on the Nasdaq overnight as Tesla and Netflix shares plunged on weak earnings reports.

       The Bursa Malaysia Technology Index fell 0.8% to 64.69, led lower by Frontken down 17 sen to RM3.29, KESM shedding nine sen to RM7.45, MPI sliding 52 sen to RM29.98 and UWC falling seven sen to RM3.44.

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       Leading the actives, Classita was down three sen to 16 sen, UEM Sunrise gained one sne to 46 sen and Top Glove shed 1.5 sen to 88.5 sen.

       Meanwhile, key Asian markets were mixed ahead of more US corporate earnings and policy meetings next week by the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan.

       Japan's Nikkei fell 0.4% to 32,373, South Korea's Kospi was flat at 2,600 and China's composite index stayed unchanged at 3,170.

       Hong Kong's Hang Seng however rose 0.7% to 19,064.