The market's uptrend took a breath pause in the opening minutes of trade before the growth momentum returned it to a rally.
At 12.30pm, the country's key index was up 7.94 points to 1,578.76, as bank stocks extended yesterday's gains.
Maybank rose eight sen to RM8.24 and Public Bank gained four sen to RM4.15 to top the index winner's list.
CIMB was also up five sen to RM5.05 while Hong Leong Bank remained subdued, losing two sen to RM18.58.
Among telcos, Axiata rose five sen to RM4.05 and Digi added three sen to RM4.31 while Maxis dropped one sen to RM4.62.
Meanwhile, plantation stocks dropped slightly as crude palm oil prices eased off historical highs. Sime Darby Plantation
fell three sen to RM4.24, IOI was unchanged at RM4.07 and Kuala Lumpur Kepong was flat at RM22.70.On the broader market, top actives were Kanger was flat at 6.5 sen, Serba Dinamik
fell 0.5 sen to 40 sen and Sapura Energy was unchanged at 10.5 sen.In regional markets, equities prices fell amid fears of runaway inflation caused by a global energy crunch.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.9% in early trade, Reuters reported.
In Japan, the Nikkei was down 1%, while South Korea's Kospi slid 1.3%.
China's main index and Hong Kong's Hang each dropped 1%.
Australia's ASX200 slipped 0.3%.