KUALA LUMPUR: DRB-Hicom and Malaysian Building Society Bhd (MBSB) rose in active trade on Wednesday ahead of the release of their much improved earnings amid the recent corporate exercises.

At 5pm, the KLCI was up 2.81 points or 0.12% to 1,858.17. Turnover was 2.28 billion shares valued at RM2.53bil. There were 605 gainers, 330 losers and 391 counters unchanged.

DRB-Hicom rose 11 sen to RM2.61 – highest since January 24 – with 29.47 million shares trade. MBSB climbed six sen to RM1.26 – highest since mid-September 2017 – with 35.9 million units done.

Consumer stocks were among the top gainers, with Ajinomoto climbing 70 sen to RM21.50, Nestle 50 sen to RM122, BAT 40 sen to RM30.30 and F&N 32 sen to RM30.32.

Among the KLCI stocks Maybank rose four sen to RM10.18 and pushed the KCI up 0.77 of a point, Hong Leong Bank gained 14 sen to RM18.64, RHB Bank added nine sen to RM5.32 and Public Bank six sen to RM22.14 while CIMB edged up one sen to RM7.13.

Petronas Chemicals firm earnings and dividends saw its share price climb four sen to RM8.14, Petronas Dagangan added 12 sen to RM25.42 and Petronas Gas 10 sen to RM17.90.

Chip-related stocks traded higher with MPI up 46 sen to RM9.99, KESM 42 sen to RM20.80 while engineering company SAM was up 28 sen to RM7.20.