KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI eased off its intraday high headed into midday as it failed to convincingly breach the 1,600 psychological resistance despite a tentative crossing earlier in the day.
At 12.30pm, the key index was up 3.74 points to 1,593.9 with investors taking some profit off the table from the morning's advance.
The market is en route to a seventh straight day of gains after the recovery theme came into sharp focus amid a ramp-up in the country's vaccination rate and the government's relaxation of restrictions for those who are fully vaccinated.
Over the weekend, global investor sentiment was lifted as US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole symposium alleviated fears that the central bank will raise interest rates in the near future, despite indications that it might pare back on its asset purchasing programme by this year.
US equities were seen hitting fresh record prices last Friday on the Fed's dovish tone.
On Bursa Malaysia, banks stocks remains in focus on the growing optimism over an economic recovery.
Maybank rose five sen to RM8.42 following last week's positive earnings announcement although Public Bank slipped seven sen to RM4.11.
CIMB, whose results are due out later today, dipped two sen to RM4.87 while Hong Leong Bank climbed 20 sen to RM19.20 ahead of its own results.
Other leading gainers included IHH up nine sen to RM6.44, Axiata rising four sen to RM4.08, MISC climbing 12 sen to RM7.12 and Tenaga addiing six sen to RM10.44.
On the wider market, Dutch Lady was seen jumping RM1.60 to RM35 while Genetec rose RM1.06 to RM30.16 and DKSH surged 45 sen to RM4.68.
Top actives were KNM unchanged at 26 sen, Bintai Kinden up 10 sen to 47.5 sne and AE Multi rising 0.5 sen to 4.5 sen.
In Asian marets, equities tracked Wall Street higher with Japan's Nikkei and South Korea's Kospi rising 0.4% apiece.
China's main index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng were each up 0.3%. Australia's ASX200 gained 0.2%.