At 9am the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was up 1.74 points at 1,557.67 from Wednesday's close of 1,555.93.
The index opened 1.01 point strong at 1,556.94 but retreated and recovered later.
The bourse started the morning trading session mixed with a renewal of positive sentiment towards banking stocks despite the weak overnight performance on Wall Street.
On the broader market, investors saw losers at 246 outpacing gainers at 161, while 239 counters were unchanged, 1,596 untraded and 19 suspended.
Total turnover at 264.9 million units worth RM134.4 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice president of equity research Thong Pak Leng expects the KLCI to face some problems on Thursday amid uncertainty in regional markets based on Wall Street's performance.
As a result, he expects the index to be at 1,545-1,560 today, including the impact of Bank Negara Malaysia's (BNM) overnight policy hike by 25 basis points on the banking sector.
Heavyweights saw Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) add 6 sen at RM9.16, Public Bank Bhd rose 2 sen at RM4.67, Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd and IHH Healthcare Bhd gained 5 sen at RM9.94 and RM6.47 while CIMB Group Holdings Bhd jumped 1 sen to RM5.11.
Active stocks saw CSH Alliance Bhd and MYEG Services Bhd decline 0.5 sen at 12 sen and 88 sen Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd recovered 1.5 sen at 7.5 sen and PUC Bhd added 1 sen at 5.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas index declined 4.97 points at 11,107.37, the FBMT 100 index erased 4.36 points at 10,781.57, the FBM Emas Shariah index declined 23.14 at 11,491.98, the FBM ACE declined 19.98 points at 5,340.16 and the FBM 70 lost 72.30 points at 13,182.27.
In terms of sector, the Financial Services index drove 55.30 points at 16,821.42, the Products and Services Industry index declined 0.45 points at 196.93 and the Plantation index lost 44.21 points at 8,189.81.
