KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30 — Bursa Malaysia extended its recovery trend at the end of the morning session today, supported by selected heavyweight and index-linked counters, dealers said.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended mid-day up 15.14 points, or 0.89 per cent, to 1,718.92, after fluctuating between 1,708.31 and 1,719.47 throughout the morning session.

The positive sentiment was bolstered by overnight gains on Wall Street which recovered further last night when its key equity barometers climbed between 0.1 per cent and 0.8 per cent at the closing bell.

“Essentially, sentiment was boosted by easing geopolitical tension in Syria as well as improving US economic data,” HwangDBS Vickers Research said.

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 shed 62.54 points to 13,409.59, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged down 13.68 points to 21,691.1 while Singapore’s Straits Times Index inched up 1.93 points to 3,039.82.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index edged up 124.94 points to 16,112.09, the Industrial Index inched up 24.3 points to 2,885.71 and the Plantation Index added 46.16 points to 8,156.68.

The FBM Emas Index climbed up 95.75 points to 11,902.78, the FBMT100 appreciated 95.96 points to 11,663.03, the FBM 70 Index increased 82.76 points to 13,432.62 but the FBM ACE Index declined 8.45 points to 4,931.21.

Advancers overwhelmed decliners 366 to 271, with 275 counters unchanged, 671 untraded and 27 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 866.67 million shares worth RM755.51 million.   

Among actives, Compugates Holdings added half a sen to 6.0 sen, The Media Shoppe was flat at 9.5 sen and Sona Petroleum-Warr declined 1.5 sen to 23.5 sen.

Among heavyweights, Maybank firmed 1.0 sen to RM9.95, Sime Darby also added one sen to RM9.40 and Axiata Group was unchanged at RM6.74. — Bernama