KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI regained some lost ground at mid-morning Tuesday, June 8 and stayed in positive territory in line with its key regional counterparts that rose on bargain hunting activities as investors picked up battered stocks.

Over at the regional markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 reversed earlier losses and was up 0.37% to 9,556.27, the South Korean Kospi Index added 0.78% to 1,650.69, the Shanghai Composite Index up 0.42% to 2,517.80, Singapore's Straits Times Index 0.34% to 2,761.23, Taiwan's TAIEX Index up 0.22% to 7,173.77 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index opened 0.4% higher at 19,459.74.

At 10am, the FBM KLCI rose 1.89 points to 1,288.16. Trading remained cautious with losers edging gainers by 128 to 123, while 138 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 71.66 million shares valued at RM85.94 million.

Among the gainers, Maybank, Supermax Corp and KPJ Healthcare added seven sen each to RM7.38, RM6.57 and RM3.04 while Hong Leong Financial Group rose nine sen to RM8.02.

Other gainers included Sitt Tatt, SBC Corp, C.I. Holdings, Perstima and Milux.

EON Capital was the top loser at mid-morning and fell 15 sen to RM7.05, while Proton lost eight sen to RM4.47.

Berjaya Corp fell seven sen to RM1.39 after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak on Monday said the government had yet to issue a sports betting licence to Ascot Sports Sdn Bhd.

Other decliners included SapuraCrest, PPB Group, Faber and PLB.

Meanwhile, OSK Research in its 2H2010 strategy report said while in the first half of the year investors showed interest in beneficiaries of government fiscal stimulus such as construction and steel, in the second half the research house prefers sectors that will benefit from private sector growth and consumption.

"We believe that private sector growth will gradually take over from public sector pump priming to drive the economy into 2011.

"As such, our top sectors for 2H are Autos, Banks, Consumer, Healthcare, O&G and Utilities," it said on Tuesday.