KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia started Wednesday on a more optimistic note after six straight days of losses, supported by firm buying of Public Bank and Hong Leong Bank, with investors hoping for a relief rally.

At 9.17am, the FBM KLCI was up 9.04 points or 0.55% to 1,661.67. Turnover was 192.76 million shares valued at RM82.76mil. There were 189 gainers, 81 losers and 140 counters unchanged.

Public Bank rose 28 sen to RM24.78 and Hong Leong Bank 20 sen to RM20.30.

KL Kepong was the top gainer, up 36 sen to RM24.32 with 200 shares done while PPB Group added 10 sen to RM17.10.

BAT bounced up 32 sen to RM36.32. As for oil and gas stocks, Petronas Dagangan rose 14 sen to RM25.44 and Petronas Gas added 12 sen to RM19.20.

As for tech and semicon counters, Vitrox  added 10 sen to RM6.99.

Global Tech fell eight sen to 42 sen, Adventa seven sen to 35 sen and Magna Prima 4.5 sen to 91.5 sen.

AirAsia lost five sen to RM2.59. The low-cost carrier and AirAsia X received demand notices forover RM36mil from MAHB as the airlines collected less  in passenger service charges from travellers than the statutory amount.