KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia extended its rally for a fourth straight day, defying expectations of profit-taking prior to Bank Negara's announcement of its latest interest rate decision.

       At 12.30pm the benchmark FBM KLCI was up 6.42 points to 1,502.53, crossing the 1,500 psychological level that was last hit on Jan 15.

       There were 545 gainers on the market compared to 387 decliners and 413 unchanged.

       The morning trading saw 2.42 billion shares crossing hands for a value of RM1.42bil.

       Investors are anticipating the Malaysian central bank will stay put on the 3% overnight policy rate, which economists say is deemed a neutral stance and supportive of growth.

       Among the blue chips, YTL Power surged RM23 sen to RM3.98 while YTL Corp climbed nine sen to RM2.41.

       Other leading gainers included CIMB gaining 10 sen to RM6.12 and Press Metal rising eight sen to RM4.85.

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       On the broader market, Ideal jumped 37 sen to RM3.50, MSM soared 37 sen to RM2.31 and United Plantation rose 20 sen to RM19.70.

       Notable decliners inclded Rapid Synergy down 10 sne to RM1.85, Jentayu Sustainables falling 8.5 sen to 75 sen and Far East shedding eight sen to RM3.60.

       The day's top actives were Widad unchanged at 18.5 sen, Handal down one sen to 10 sen and Leform flat at 19.5 sen.

       In regional markets, China's fortunes were mixed as the mainland's composite index dropped 0.15% to 2,766 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.8% to 15,476.

       This comes on the back of Tuesday's report that the Chinese government was set to inject US$278bil in measures to support the ailing market, although some investors remained doubtful it was enough to stabilise the market.

       Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei was down 1% to 36,161 and South Korea's slipped 0.4% to 2,469.