KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 24 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session higher with gains seen in selected heavyweights, dealers said.

At lunch break, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 4.48 points higher at 1,837.34, after fluctuating between 1,833.52 and 1,840.34 throughout the session.

Three of the top five gainers were heavyweight counters: British American Tobacco garnered 84 sen to RM63.88, Petronas Gas gained 58 sen to RM24.10 and Kuala Lumpur Kepong chalked up 38 sen to RM26.36.

On the scoreboard, the Industrial Index rose 23.52 points to 3,130.68, the Finance Index improved 23.689 points to 16,820.54 but the Plantation Index declined 5.7 points to 8,750.85.

The FBM Emas Index increased 21.119 points for 12,668.1, the FBMT100 Index added 21.841 points to 12,406.69, the FBM Ace climbed 8.52 points to 5,611.42 but the FBM 70 gave up 8.899 points for 14,044.16.

Losers led gainers 299 to 283, with 304 counters unchanged, 673 untraded and 17 others suspended.

Turnover totalled 449.75 million shares worth RM339.18 million.   

Among actives, Sumatec added 1.5 sen to 28 sen, Xidelang climbed half-a-sen to 37.5 sen and Tiger Synergy earned one sen to 14 sen.

Solution Engineering was unchanged at 34 sen while CSL slipped half-a-sen to 19 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB added two sen each to RM9.97 and RM7.63 respectively, Tenaga perked six sen to RM11.06 and Sime Darby gained three sen to RM9.37.

Axiata was unchanged at RM6.75. — Bernama