KUALA LUMPUR: Domestic banks helped to lift the overall market on Thursday even as high core inflation data from the US cast a pall over investor sentiment in global equities.
At 9.15am, the FBM KLCI was up 2.69 points to 1,558.55, one day after Malaysia's central bank increased the overnight policy rate by 25 basis points in a surprise move that analysts say was to head off capital outflows and support the local currency.
Neverthless, Bursa Malaysia was negative overall with 307 decliners compared with 186 gainers.
The generally weaker market was in line with the sell-off on Wall Street as the inflation data released overnight renewed expectations of aggressive US Federal Reserve rate hikes.
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