KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia closed broadly higher today on the back of persistent buying in heavyweights and lower liners.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 9.33 points to 1,653.87, from 1,644.54 last Friday.

The key index opened 1.30 points higher at 1,645.84 and fluctuated between 1,645.49 and 1,656.49 throughout the day.

A dealer said most Asian markets rose today as investors’ sentiment was positive due to an encouraging United States economy, buoyed by the latest jobs data which showed that its economy added 287,000 jobs in June.

"It has created optimism that the US labour market has been able to show resilience despite possible external risks from the global uncertainty amid the European Union referendum outcome,” he said.

On Bursa Malaysia, market breadth was positive as advancers outpaced decliners 437 to 329 with 359 counters unchanged, 597 untraded and 18 others suspended.

Volume rose to 1.61 billion shares worth RM1.6 billion from 1.23 billion shares valued at RM1.44 billion recorded last Friday.

The FBM Emas Index surged 61.3 points to 11,528.95, the FBMT100 Index gained 62.7 points to 11,283.58 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 70.92 points to 12,090.13.

The FBM 70 improved 69.89 points to 12,973.72 and the FBM Ace increased 43.11 points higher at 5,200.48. ~Sector-wise, the Industrial Index added 26.98 points to 3,121.18, the Plantation Index perked 57.77 points to 7,575.14 and the Finance Index rose 8.29 points to 14,282.6.

Among heavyweights, TNB rose eight sen to RM14.18, IHH Healthcare perked one sen to RM6.64, Petronas Chemicals rose seven sen to RM6.63, Public Bank was flat at RM19.34 while Maybank shed one sen to RM8.19.

As for actives, Borneo Oil was flat at 18.5 sen, Vivocom put on 1.5 sen to 25.5 sen, AirAsia gained four sen to RM2.63, while Trive Property, Sanichi and Dagang Nexchange added half-a-sen each to 8.5 sen, 17 sen and 21.5 sen, respectively.

Main Market turnover advanced to 1.1 billion shares worth RM1.51 billion from Friday’s 880.34 million shares worth RM1.38 billion.

ACE Market volume swelled to 258.38 million shares valued at RM49.95 million from 160.06 million units worth RM33.97 million.

Warrants increased to 241.3 million units worth RM34.27 million from 185.70 million shares valued at RM27.81 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 35.24 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (198.67 million), construction (53.88 million), trade and services (593.68 million), technology (101.65 million), infrastructure (10.16 million), SPAC (15.51 million), finance (43.01 million), hotels (1.01 million), properties (39.85 million), plantations (9.93 million), mining (nil), REITs (6.41 million) and closed/fund (nil). — Bernama