KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia erased the losses from yesterday's selloff amid a surge in trading activity as buying interest picked up on the market.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 8.7 points to 1,575.42, in part owing to a rally in bank counters.

Trading volume was on track to one of its days on record with 6.17 billion shares traded valued at RM2.17bil.

After digesting the Bank Negara rate cut announced yesterday, bank stocks moved higher with Maybank gaining eight sen to RM7.90, Public Bank climbing 42 sen to RM17.82, Hong Leong Bank adding eight sen to RM14.54 and CIMB gaining four sen to RM3.74. RHB was unchanged at RM4.98.

Telcos were also higher with Maxis gaining nine sen to RM5.26, Digi adding two sen to RM4.23 and Axiata rising two sen to RM3.44.

Other counters showing positive movement were Dialog up five sen to RM3.90, Hap Seng Consolidated rising 17 sen to RM8.69 and Sime Darby Plantaion gaining three sen to RM4.99.

Of the most actively traded counters, PDZ jumped nine sen to 18 sen, VC rose two sen to eight sen and Iris gained one sen to 27 sen.

In regional markets, the recent surge in equities prices led to profit-taking as consolidation pressures grew ahead of the corporate earnings season.

China's benchmark index however added another 0.75% as investors' bullish sentiment grew on the back of Beijing's resolve to boost the national economy.

Crude oil prices were lower on Wednesday amid persistent worries over a buildup in US inventories as new coronavirus infections continues to rise. However, optimism that China's economy would rebound quickly limited losses.

US crude dropped 18 cents to US$40.45 a barrel and Brent crude was 17 cents lower at US$42.91 a barrel.

On the forex market, the ringgit was 0.1% down against the greenback at 4.2770. It fell 0.2% against the pound sterling at 5.3693 and 0.1% against the Singapore dollar at 3.0640.