KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session steadier today, bucking the regional trend, dealers said.

They said the market was lifted by selected bluechips and finance counters such as CIMB, Maybank and AmBank.

At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 2.47 points higher at 1,774.36, after hovering between 1,771.92 to 1,776.07 in morning trade.

Petronas Gas, Aeon and Puncak Niaga were among the top gainers with selling pressure seen on British American Tobacco, Guinness Anchor and Panasonic Manufacturing.

On the key regional markets, China’s Shanghai Stock Exchange was 26.58 points down, Indonesia’s JKSE declined 26.58 points, Japan’s Nikkei dropped 17.31 points and Singapore’s Straits Times Index lost 25.31 points.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index leapt 80 points to 16,981.74, but the Industrial Index declined 12.61 points to 3,000.17.

The Plantation Index gained 26.73 points to 8,394.48, while the FBM Ace Index added 31.33 points to 4,643.35 and the FBMT100 Index improved 17.551 points to 12,009.32, with the FBM Mid 70 Index rising 23.43 points to 14,183.87

Gainers led losers 312 to 262, while 269 counters were unchanged, 723 untraded and 24 others suspended.   

Volume stood at 639.589 million shares worth RM892.434 million   

Among actives, Luster Industries appreciated on sen to 10.5 sen, DVM Technologies shed half-a-sen to eight sen and Puncak Niaga Holdings edged up 38 sen to RM2.29.

As for the heavyweights, Maybank gained six sen to RM10.46 and CIMB Group rose seven sen to RM8.30, with Sime Darby flat at RM9.50 sen. — Bernama