At 9.05am, Malaysia's key index was up 4.58 points to 1,516.24, supported by a rise in financial heavyweights.
Maybank rose six sen to RM7.16, Public Bank jumped 20 sen to RM15.62, CIMB added three sen to RM3.10, RHB climbed three sen to RM4.56 and Hong Leong Bank gained two sen to RM14.98.
Petronas Chemicals was also up six sen to RM5.57 and Tenaga rose 10 sen to RM10.72.
This offset a decline in glove makers, which had been pushing higher over recent days. Hartalega
dropped 18 sen to RM17.24 while Top Glove lost 11 sen to RM8.66.In the spotlight today, Yinson
rose 16 sen to RM5.80 after yesterday posting results that beat analyst expectations.Meanwhile, most actively traded counters were PTrans up 0.5 sen to 29 sen, Ikhmas gaining 0.5 sen to 18.5 sen and MTouche unchanged at 5.5 sen.
In its market outlook, Malacca Securities Research expects the consolidation in the market to remain for an extended period.
"The dwindling trading interest ahead of the end of the blanker moratorium may also keep gains across the lower liners in check.
"Investors are opting to remain on the sidelines, waiting for further leads before pouncing aggressively into the market again," it said.
Asian markets meanwhile are set to start stronger on the back of US optimism over additional government spending to boost the economy.
Last night, all the major US indices jumped on hopes that a US stimulus deal would soon be passed despite a breakdown in negotiations between policymakers in recent months.
Japan's Nikkei started 0.5% lower while South Korea's Kospi was up 1% and Australia's ASX200 gained 0.2%.