KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI extended its rebound, erasing all the losses from the previous session to approach the psychological resistance of 1,600 points.

       At 12.30pm, the benchmark index was up 21.42 points to 1,595.31. The market was overwhelmingly positive with 636 gainers compared with 287 decliners.

       The financial services sector showed the strongest rally with Maybank jumping 17 sen to RM8.87, Public Bank adding nine sen to RM4.37, CIMB climbing 16 sen to RM5.64 and Hong Leong Bank rising 14 sen to RM19.88.

       Press Metal also retraced higher by four sen to RM6.79.

       In plantations, Kuala Lumpur Kepong rose 12 sen to RM25.52 while IOI gained 14 sen to RM4.64. Sime Darby Plantation however lost one sen to RM4.79.

       Some profit-taking was see in oil and gas counters following Brent crude's surge above the US$100 a barrel mark. At the time of writing, the international benchmark of crude oil was up 2.4% to US$101.46 a barrel.

       Hibiscus was down four sen to RM1.22 and Bumi Armada dropped 1.5 sen ot 50.5 sen.

       Among actives, SMTrack rose 2.5 sen ot 24 sen, DNeX gained two sen to RM1.16 and AT was unchanged at two sen.

       Meanwhile, major Asian markets tracked Wall Street's rally as US President Joe Biden responded to Russia's invasion of Ukraine with harsh sanctions.

       Japan' Nikkei rose 1.6%, South Korea's Kospi added 1.1% and China's composite index gained 0.5%.

       Hong Kong's Hang Seng however dipped 0.2% amid disappointing earnings by Chinese Big Tech including Alibaba.

       Australia's ASX200 was up 0.1%.