KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session higher today, lifted by gains on Kuala Lumpur Kepong (KLK) and Petronas related counters.

But, the upside was capped by losses in finance counters.

At lunch break, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was up 1.7 points to 1,805.35, after hovering between 1,797.09 and 1,811.08 throughout the morning session.

KLK gained 24 sen to RM22.76, Petronas Chemicals chalked up 23 sen to RM5.35 and Petronas Dagangan perked 22 sen to RM19.38.

Meanwhile, Hong Leong Capital topped the losers list, shedding 48 sen to RM9.80, and Public Bank eased 12 sen to RM18.48.

On other scoreboards, the FBM Emas Index rose 13.7 points to 12,397.94, the FBMT100 Index expanded 13.9 points to 12,093.03, the FBM Emas Shariah increased 32.97 points to 13,016.87.

The FBM 70 firmed 24.89 points to 13,317.93 and the FBM Ace added 25.58 points to 6,940.75.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Index added 8.88 points to 3,330.3 and the Plantation Index increased 2.06 points to 7,804.11, while the Finance Index declined 17.03 points to 15,951.42.

Gainers edged losers 351 to 315 with 301 counters unchanged, 804 counters untraded and 11 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.13 billion shares worth RM679.46 million.

Among actives, Privasia added 3.5 sen to 33.5 sen, Talam Transform and Jadi Imaging gained one sen each to nine sen and 10 sen respectively, and Eti Tech and Globaltec earned half a sen each to 11 sen and 7.5 sen respectively.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank and Axiata slipped one sen each to RM9.14 and RM7.03 respectively, TNB lost 14 sen to RM14.46, while Sime Darby gained four sen to RM9.30. — Bernama