KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 29): The FBM KLCI edged up in early trade on Wednesday in line with the advance at most regional markets, but local sentiment remained cautious in the absence of fresh catalysts.

At 9am, the FBM KLCI added 0.87 points to 1,826.55.

The early gainers included Globetronics, Press Metal, Lafarge Malaysia, IHH, Lion Forest Industries, Gadang, Inari, Bursa and Petronas Chemicals.

Regionally, Asian shares advanced to one-month highs on Wednesday, helped by Wall Street which gained on optimism over corporate earnings and prospects the U.S. Federal Reserve will reaffirm its willingness to wait longer before raising interest rates, according to Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.3 percent, led by 0.6 percent rise in South Korean shares while Japan's Nikkei share average edged up 0.5 percent, it said.

JF Apex Securities Research in a market preview Wednesday said U.S. stocks rose overnight with the Dow industrials extending gains into a fourth day and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite higher on the month, as investors embraced corporate earnings, a rise in consumer sentiment and anticipated the end of the Federal Reserve's bond buys.

It said that similarly, European stocks ended the day firmly in positive territory, regaining some of Monday's losses, as investors reacted to third-quarter earnings and prepared for a key monetary policy decision from the U.S.

“On the local exchange, the FBM KLCI added 2.53 points to 1825.68 points.

“Following the bullish performance in the US, we expect the KLCI to test its resistance of 1830 points and attempt to break the downtrend since August,” it said.