At 12.30pm, the key index was up 1.96 points to 1,580.59 most of the constituent counters in positive territory.
Petronas Chemicals jumped 18 sen to RM7.53 while Press Metal
added 33 sen to RM8.38.Bank stocks were also higher led by Maybank up five sen to RM7.91 and Hong Leong Bank climbing 12 sen to RM17.54.
Public Bank however was down two sen to RM4.10.
Glove counters erased most of the gains on the index as Top Glove sunk 26 sen to RM6.35 and Hartalega
shed 42 sen to RM12.82. Supermax was down 33 sen to RM6.34.According to Malacca Securities Research, the local bourse could see some rebound owing to the positive performance of the US market last week although traders could trade cautiously ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.
"We expect buying support to surface within the plantation counters on the back of higher crude palm oil price.
"Besides, technology, furniture and consumer-related stocks should continue their uptrend move throughout the reporting season period," it said.
Among the top-traded stocks, Dnex was up five sen to 33 sen, Luster gained two sen to 23.5 sen and Trive shed three sen to 22.5 sen.
Meanwhile, Asian markets rose as oil prices eged towards US$60 a barrel on hopes of a US$1.9 trillion Covid-19 aid package being passed by policymakers as soon as this month.
Japan's Nikkei rose 1.9% although South Korea's Kospi remained flat. China's composite index climbed 1.1% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.7%. Australia's ASX200 was also up 0.7%.