KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 1 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session firmer today, spurred by brisk buying across the board, said dealers.

The benchmark index stood at 1,778.61 at lunch break, up 5.99 points from yesterday’s close, after opening 2.38 points higher at 1,775.71 It had hovered between 1,766.70 and 1,778.97.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index advanced 64.02 points to 16,812.61, the Industrial Index rose 2.09 points to 3,026.85 but the Plantation Index eased 9.09 points to 8,309.23.      

The FBM Emas Index chalked up 41.66 points to 12,373.04, the FBMT100 garnered 37.14 points to 12,122.10, the FBM Mid 70 Index added 28.27 points to 14,185.27 and the FBM Ace Index went up 30.30 points to 5,029.26.          

Gainers broadly outpaced losers at 403 to 211, with 273 counters unchanged, 690 untraded, and 13 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 676.808 million shares worth RM874.682 million.

Among actives, Sona Petroleum shares and warrants were up one sen and two sen to 43 sen and 24.5 sen respectively, Daya Materials added 2.5 sen to 27.5 sen and TH Heavy Engineering gained three sen to 84.5 sen.              

Of the heavyweights, Maybank rose six sen to RM10.32, CIMB increased two sen to RM7.89, Axiata earned five sen to RM6.84 and Sime Darby inched up one sen to RM9.49. – Bernama