KUALA LUMPUR: A return in optimism over the global economy pushed domestic and regional equities higher on Monday, with buying interest returning to Malaysian blue chips.

       At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 7.54 points to 1,543.61, with 29 out of the 30 component stocks in positive territory.

       Axiata was the sole laggard, dropping two sen to RM2.67.

       The broader market showed a positive breadth of 501 gainers to 392 decliners and 447 unchanged.

       The trading volume was 1.82 billion shares valued at RM984.72mil.

       Of gainers, Hong Leong Bank rose 14 sen to RM19.52, PPB rose 28 sen ot RM15.66, Genting gained seven sen to RM4.77 and Kuala Lumpur rising 20 sen to RM22.64.

       Of actives, TWL was unchanged at three sen, SMTrack rose 0.5 sen to five sen and Fitters up 0.5 sen to six sen.

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       Meanwhile, Chinese shares rallied amid improving sentiment over the economic recovery. The Shanghai Composite Index jumped 1% to 3,072 while the blue-chip CSI300 climbed 1.5% to 3,591.

       Japan's Nikkei retreated below the 40,000 psychological support, falling 1.2% to 39,874.