At 12.30pm, the key index was up 3.81 points to 1,585.07 as bank counters continued to rally amid the prospects of a recovering economy.
"Tracking the losses on Wall Street overnight, we expect the local bourse may continue to consolidate further as market players are likely to trade on a cautious tone on the broader market.
"Nevertheless, we expect traders to position themselves for the recovery theme as Covid-19 vaccination is taking," said Malacca Securities Research.
Bank Negara's recent decision to maintain the status quo in the overnight policy rate helped lift the sentiment in the financial sector, which had previously recorded eroded earnings due to tighter lending margins.
Maybank was up four sen to RM8.24, Public Bank rose three sen to RM4.26, Hong Leong Bank jumped 24 sen to RM18.66 and CIMB gained seven sen to RM4.44.
Glove stocks rebounded after experiencing sharp losses in the previous session, continuing its trend for volatile price movements. Top Glove added seven sen to RM5.03, Hartalega
edged one sen higher to RM9.66 and Supermax gained two sen to RM4.38.Meanwhile, crude oil prices continued to push higher as Opec+ committed to maintaining supply cuts in April, with Brent crude gaining 0.9% to US$67.36 a barrel.
Most energy stocks advanced with some notable gainers comprising Bumi Armada
up two sen to 44.5 sen, Hibiscus Petroleum climbing 2.5 sne to 68 sen and Sapura Energy rising 0.5 sen to 15 sen.Of actives, TH Heavy Engineering rose 1.5 sen to 13.5 sen, Techna-x added one sen to 15 sen and Komarkcorp sliding six sen to 55 sen.
Elsewhere, Asian markets continued to retreat on the back of rising US Treasury yields.
Japan's Nikkei fell 0.75%, South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.5%, China's composite index slid 0.3% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.3%
Australia's ASX200 slipped 0.8%.