KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session higher, prompted by gains in selected key heavyweights led by Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Bhd, dealers said.

At lunch break, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was up 1.09 points at 1,810.81 with turnover crossing the one billion mark. 

Syarikat Takaful Malaysia topped the gainers list, chalking up 32 sen to RM16.42, Kuala Lumpur Kepong gained 30 sen to RM22.36, Malaysian Pacific Industries rose 18 sen to RM6.97, Power Root Bhd rose 17 sen to RM1.90 and UMW Holdings Bhd increased 16 sen to RM10.80.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index shed 0.35 of-a-point to 12,498.44, the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 2.37 points to 12,992.78 but the FBMT100 Index increased 0.25 of-a-point to 12,172.33.

The FBM 70 eased 26.58 points to 13,569.51 and the FBM Ace trimmed 22.23 points to 7,188.01.

The Industrial Index improved 1.45 points to 3,271.39, the Finance Index rose 9.41 points to 16,137.48 and the Plantation Index added 1.76 points to 7,527.19.

Market breadth was negative with losers outnumbering gainers 366 to 254, while 348 counters remained unchanged, 836 untraded and 19 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.06 billion shares worth RM866.85 million.

Of heavyweights, Maybank and Sime Darby added one sen each to RM9.35 and RM8.96, respectively, and Public Bank rose four sen to RM19.22.

TNB was flat at RM13.98 while Axiata lost a sen to RM6.74.

Among actives, China Automobile rose 1.5 sen to 46.5 sen, RGB improved half-a-sen to 17 sen, Nexgram was flat at 13 sen while Malakoff eased 11 sen to RM1.65 and Kanger trimmed 1.5 sen to 19.5 sen. — Bernama