KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia rebounded from yesterday losses, lifted by buying interest in blue chips, dealers said.

At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,846.82, up 0.64 points, after opening 2.61 points higher at 1,848.79.

Gains was mostly spotted in finance and banking counters with Public Bank rising 14 sen to RM18.78, CIMB gained four sen to RM7.69 and Hong Leong Bank added eight sen to RM14.20.

Market breadth was positive with gainers thumping losers 99 to 53, while 108 counters were unchanged, 1,296 untraded and 16 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 31.051 million shares worth RM20.566 million.

HwangDBS Vickers Research said the benchmark index was expected to show resilience ahead, probably slogging its way towards the immediate resistance target of 1,860, later on.

Meanwhile, Wall Street held on to its recent gains last night when its major bellwethers ended broadly flat between -0.3 and +0.1 per cent.

Back home, on the scoreboard, the Finance Index chalked up 31.54 points to 16,920.06 but the Industrial Index slipped 2.18 points to 3,151.71 and the Plantation Index fell 42.31 points to 8,858.15.

The FBM Emas Index perked 4.75 points to 12,734.37, FBMT100 Index added 3.14 points to 12,469.46, the FBM Ace was up 10.69 points at 5,646.83 but FBM 70 eased 1.44 points to 14,109.18.

Among actives, Xidelang Holdings inched up half-a-sen to 35.5 sen, Crest Builder rose four sen to RM1.56 while Sumatec Resources shed half-a-sen to 27.5 sen.

Of heavyweights, TNB earned eight sen to RM11.12, Axiata Group was flat at RM6.79, Maybank lost six sen to RM10.04 and Sime Darby slipped three sen to RM9.52. — Bernama