At 12.30pm, the index was up 7.84 points to 1,508.16.
Press Metal
led gains with a 23 sen jump to RM5.44 while Sime Darby Plantation grew 11 sen to RM3.74.Petronas Chemicals climbed two sen to RM8.79.
In banks, Maybank rose two sen to RM8.24 and Public Bank added one sen to RM4.11 although Hong Leong Bank dipped 10 sen to RM18.40 and CIMB lost four sen to RM5.34.
On the broader market, there were 301 gainers compared to 266 decliners.
Top actives were Nexgram
unchanged at 1.5 sen, Saudee down 0.5 sen to 5.5 sen and Widad flat at 35.5 sen.US markets were up overnight following as fears over the impact of the Omicron virus on the economy subsided.
All its major indices posted gains on confirmation from US President Joe Biden there would no lockdown following from this latest variant of the disease.
In regional markets, Japan's Nikkei rose 0.5%, South Korea's Kospi added 0.25% and China's composite index gained 0.1%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Australia's ASX200 were each up 0.2% apiece.