KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia stayed firm after six consecutive sessions of gains as investor confidence in the ongoing uptrend remained intact.

       At 9.10am, the FBM KLCI was up 2.29 points to 1,586.2, resisting the downward pressure of profit-taking activity despite the recent ramp up in prices.

       Investor focus has shifted to emerging markets, incuding Malaysia, which have lagged behind major developed markets in re-emerging from the Covid pandemic.

       This comes in contrast with Wall Street's performance, whose major indices chalked up a third straight session of losses overnight amid rising commodity prices and inflation fears.

       "Despite the overnight negative performance on Wall Street, we believe the local bourse may remain bullish over the near term and move closer to the 1,600 psychological level, supported by the reopening of economic activities as the vaccination rate of the adult population has reached above 90%," said Malacca Securities Research.

       On Bursa Malaysia, bank counters took off with a running start with Maybank rising nine sen to RM8.32, Hong Leong Bank adding 10 sen to RM18.66, Public Bank gaining one sen to RM4.17 and CIMB edging one sen higher to RM5.12.

       After leading the index higher yesterday, there was some mild profit-taking in telcos. Axiata remained firm at RM4.10 but Digi was down two sne to RM4.33 and Maxis slid three sne to RM4.65.

       Plantation counters also took a breather with Sime Darby Planation losing one sen to RM4.25, IOI flat at RM4.05 and Kuala Lumpur Kepong down 10 sen to RM22.60.

       Meanwhile, among active counters, SCIB was up one sen to 51.5 sen, Serba Dinamik unchanged at 41.5 sen and NWP rose 1.5 sen to 30.5 sen.