At 12.30pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI was up 2.69 points to 1,457.13, ahead of earnings announcements from banking heavyweights Maybank, Hong Leong Bank and CIMB.
The overall market however was negative with 503 decliners compared to 402 gainers.
Trading volume was 2.22 billion shares valued at RM1.49bil.
Investor sentiment in bank stocks have been buoyed by optimism of earnings growth, leading to a two sen gain in Maybank to RM9.11, its highest trading price in 15 months.
CIMB rose three sen to RM5.66 while Hong Leong Bank climbed 18 sen to RM20.06.
Public Bank, which announced its earnings result yesterday, jumped 10 sen to RM4.24. RHB bucked the trend, dropping three sen to RM5.67.
Meanwhile, Axiata was down seven sen to RM2.51, extending losses after a disappointing result that saw its bottomline impacted by lower contribution from CelcomDigi and tax losses from Ncell.
Among active counters, IW City was down one sen to 75 sen, Ekovest shed two sen to 48 sen and Capital A was up two sen to 97.5 sen.
Meanwhile, Asian markets were lifted by weak US labour data, which reinforced the case for the US Federal Reserve to pause on interest rate hikes.
China’s main index was up 0.1% to 3,137 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 0.6% to 18,593.
Japan’s Nikkei added 0.7% to 32,459 and South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.7% to 2,568.