Malaysian shares finished higher for the eighth consecutive day on Friday, helped by foreign buying on select banking stocks like AMMB Holdings and RHB Capital.
Gains in heavyweights like Telekom Malaysia helped to push the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index 0.36 percent higher to close at 861.72 points.
Foreign and local funds had chased the index 4.3 percent higher through the week, with blue chips finishing at their highest level in more than three years on Wednesday, on hopes of stronger corporate earnings.
"There has been a surge in foreign flows," said Wan Ahmad Satria Wan Hussein, Mayban Securities' head of dealing. Overall market volume was 1.1 billion shares, one-fifth more than on Thursday's.
Gainers beat losers 610 to 264. Malaysian firms must report earnings for the October-December period by the end of February and firms such as Malaysian Pacific Industries and Public Bank have turned in sharply higher profits.
Maybank, the key index's biggest component, ended unchanged at 10.80 ringgit ahead of its quarterly earnings announcement after market hours on Friday.
Other banking stocks were actively traded. AMMB rose 1.5 percent to 4.00 ringgit while RHB Capital gained 1.2 percent to 2.64 ringgit.
Telekom Malaysia Bhd, the country's second biggest stock by market value, gained two percent to 10.40 ringgit.
Shares of national carmaker Proton extended losses, falling 3.7 percent to 9.25 ringgit after it was reported that key foreign shareholders have offered to sell their stake to state investment arm Khazanah Nasional Bhd.
Japan's Mitsubishi Motors and Mitsubishi Corp have offered a combined 15.8 percent stake in Proton to Khazanah Nasional, a source close to the state agency told Reuters.