KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 2 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session firmer today, led by key heavyweight counters amid positive sentiments on Wall Street.        

The benchmark index stood at 1,781.37 at lunch break, up 3.55 points from yesterday's close, after opening 3.32 points better at 1,781.14.

It had hovered between 1,780.23 and 1,787.83 throughout the morning session.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index surged 28.16 points to 16,875.68, the Industrial Index rose 10.07 points to 3,016.52 and the Plantation Index was up 7.61 points to 8,333.74.

The FBM Emas Index perked 35.68 points to 12,404.66, the FBMT100 garnered 32.22 points to 12,148.43, the FBM70 jumped 70.6 points to 14,246.92 and the FBM Ace Index rose 13.03 points to 5,077.26.    

Gainers outpaced losers at 354 to 234, with 308 counters unchanged, 681 untraded and 13 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 718.671 million shares worth RM846.269 million.     

Among actives, Patimas Computers inched up half-a-sen to 4.5 sen, TDM added 4.5 sen to 91 sen, Flonic Hi-Tec was flat at 14.5 sen but Daya Materials fell one sen to 30 sen.    

Of the heavyweights, Maybank gained four sen to RM10.44, while Axiata, Sime Darby and Maxis were flat at RM6.83, RM9.49 and 7.08, respectively.

CIMB lost one sen to RM7.83. — Bernama