KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia picked up steam in the afternoon session as it moved further afield of the 1,450 resistance even as tensions between the US and China soured regional market sentiment.

Stocks in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong fell on Thursday as the US said the latter no longer warranted its special status under US law.

The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.55% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng dove 1.75% on the news that could see threaten the city's status as a global financial hub.

However, the Malaysian market seemed impervious to the geopolitical turmoil and maintained its upward tajectory. At end of day trading, the FBM KLCI was up 5.77 points to a 12-week high of 1,457.5.

There remained strong trading interest on the bourse with daily volume rising to 6.94 billion shares for a value of RM5.45bil.

Among index-linked stocks, Petronas Chemicals rose 14 sen to RM6.19, CIMB added nine sen to RM3.51 and Maxis put on eight sen to RM5.39.

Glove maker Top Glove climbed 24 sen to RM13.10 while Hartalega gained 26 sen to RM11.14.

Small rivals in the rubber glove space were also on the move with Supermax jumping 73 sen to RM7.63, Rubberex surging 70 sen to RM3.06 and Comfort Gloves rising 37 sen to RM3.45.

Careplus, which was the second most traded counter on the bourse, rose 14 sen to RM1.11.

Meanwhile cosumer giant Nestle put on 60 sen to RM139.60.

Among the most active counters on the bourse, Lambo was flat at two sen, Eduspec gained 0.5 sen to three sen and Key Alliance slipped one sen to 7.5 sen.

Meanwhile, an increase in US crude stockpiles sent prices lower as traders worried over the recovery in demand.

US crude was 89 cents lower at US$31.95 a barrel while Brent crude dropped 82 cents to US$33.92 a barrel.

The ringgit tracked oil prices, losing 0.1% against the US dollar at US$33.92 a barrel, 0.35% against the pound serling at 5.3458 and 0.25% against the Singapore dollar at 3.0675.