KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI remained positive at midday following the release of the country's inflation data, which came within analyst expectations.

       At 12.30pm, the key index was up 3.06 points to 1,534.36. The overall market was negative with 492 decliners compared with 271 gainers.

       Consumer and plantations stocks were seen leading the market higher after the Department of Statistics revealed that food prices had led the country's consumer price index 2.3% higher in April.

       Nestle rose 90 sen to RM134.20, Carlsberg gained 44 sen to RM22.54, Dutch Lady added 30 sen to RM33.90.

       Kuala Lumpur Kepong climbed 30 sen to RM26.20, United Plantations rose 12 sen to RM14.52 and IOI gained 12 sen to RM4.24.

       Financial services were mixed as Hong Leong Bank dropped six sen to RM21.06, Maybank fell two sen to RM8.94, Public Bank rose three sen to RM4.53 and CIMB up one sen to RM4.96.

       Top actives were MNC up 0.5 sen to two sen, Cypark falling 5.5 sen to 44.5 sen and Serba Dinamik sliding one sent o nine sen.

       Asian markets mostly shrugged off the weakness on Wall Street, even though investors remained cautious over weak economic growth data.

       Japan's Nikkei was flat, South Korea's Kospi rose 0.8% and China's composite index gained 0.6%.

       Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.6% while Australia's ASX200 climbed 0.7%.