KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia climbed higher at midday on Friday, riding on the coat tails of the firmer key Asian markets and the overnight gains on Wall Street.

       At lunch break, the FBM KLCI climbed 4.18 points, or 0.26% to 1,596.70, buoyed by gains in telcos and banking stocks. Turnover was 2.69 billion shares valued at RM1.47bil.

       Rakuten Trade believes the FBM KLCI to possibly stage a mild rebound today and expect the index to trend within the 1,590-1,600 range today.

       PublicInvest Research said the FBM KLCI might nudge higher today after the US stock market had its best day since March on Thursday, as investors’ worries about inflation and potential interest rate increases were tempered by upbeat corporate earnings reports.

       Meanwhile, Mercury Securities maintained a conservative outlook following Evergrande’s failure on recent bond payments, intensifying market fears.

       However, it said the surge in the US market may bring some calm to the local market.

       Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 surged 1.56% and 1.71% to finish at 34,912.56 and 4,438.26 respectively. Nasdaq gained 1.73% to end at 14,823.43.

       Axiata, which added eight sen to RM4.09, pushed the index higher by 1.1047. MISC jumped 12 sen to RM7.27, lifting the index higher by 0.8064 and Genting Malaysia rose six sen to RM3.22, nudging the index 0.5363 higher.

       At Bursa, Genetec surged RM2.36 to RM44.80, SAM Engineering jumped 96 sen to RM23.10, PMB Technology rose 94 sen to RM15 and MPI added 60 sen to RM45.10.

       Carlsberg fell 78 sen to RM22.56, Theta Edge lost 21 sen to RM1.23, Nestle declined 20 sen to RM133.60 and Brahim's gave up 19 sen to 27 sen.