KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session higher today, lifted by continuous buying activities in heavyweights.

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 8.39 points or 0.49 per cent better at 1,724.5, after moving between 1,720.06 and 1,727.07 throughout the morning session.

The stronger Bursa Malaysia performance was also in tandem with most of its regional peers on the back of Greece’s fresh bailout plan.         

Japan’s Nikkei 225 surged 1.59 per cent to 20,408.27 and Singapore’s Straits Times rose 0.09 per cent to 3,314.06. But, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.58 per cent to 25,078.92.         

Gainers thumped losers 429 to 224, with 291 counters unchanged, 850 untraded and 11 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 829.66 billion shares valued at RM724.79 million.

Among heavyweights, Axiata rose nine sen to RM6.38, Public Bank jumped 14 sen to RM18.96 and British American Tobacco soared RM1.44 to RM64.84, while Maybank and Maxis Bhd gained four sen each to RM9.23 and RM6.52 respectively.

Of the actives, LCTH Corp gained six sen to 57 sen, with APFT and China Automobile flat at 20 sen and 31 sen respectively, while Perwaja declined 1.5 sen to 29 sen.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index expanded 60.45 points to 11,868.18 and the FBMT100 Index was 58.45 points higher at 11,557.69, while the FBM Emas Shariah appreciated 64.99 points to 12,353.87. 

The FBM 70 chalked up 63.24 points to 12,759.5 and the FBM Ace garnered 66.25 points to 6,131.22.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index advanced 66.68 points to 15,473.32, the Plantation Index improved 24.18 points to 7,467.4 and the Industrial Index perked 13.36 points to 3,180.24. — Bernama