KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 17 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia remained in positive territory at the end of the morning session today on further buying interest in heavyweights, dealers said.

They said positive news from the United States on the debt-ceiling crisis as well as the upcoming Umno elections this weekend, gave traction to the rally.

As at 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) advanced 6.62 points or 0.37 per cent to 1,797.99 after opening at 1,801.04. The benchmark index fluctuated between 1,797.01 and 1,802.57 throughout the morning session.

Most regional bourses were on an uptrend, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 surging 127.69 points to 14,594.83, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng improving 53.39 points to 23,281.72 and Singapore’s Straits Times up by 26.04 points to 3,200.07.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index increased 27.602 points to 16,759.47, the Plantation Index 25.59 points to 8,441.28, and the Industrial Index 18.15 points at 3,087.74. The FBM Emas Index jumped 43.94 points to 12,505.95, the FBMT100 Index 42.74 points to 12,238.36, the FBM Ace 46.91 points to 5,509.16 and the FBM 70 40.02 points at 14,255.64.

Gainers led decliners by 403 to 228, with 306 counters unchanged, 676 untraded and 15 others suspended. It was an active trading, with volume at 1.051 billion shares worth RM781.627 million.

For the top gainers, Petronas Gas rose 24 sen to RM22.94 while Hong Leong Financial and British American Tobacco were up 20 sen each to RM15.68 and RM63.10 respectively.

Among actives, The Media Shoppe was unchanged at 9 sen while Daya Materials edged up 1.5 sen to 34 sen and Sumatec Resources was 10 sen higher at 32.5 sen.

For the heavyweights, Maybank eased 1 sen to RM9.93 while Axiata rose 2 sen to RM6.92 and Petronas Chemicals edged up 1 sen to RM7.14. CIMB was unchanged at RM7.46. — Bernama