KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 12 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session higher on buying support in selected trade and services counters, led by SapuraKencana and Maxis.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,682.50, up 3.70 points, against Thursday’s close of 1,678.80.

The index opened 2.31 points better at 1,681.11.

Winners led losers 400 to 276 while 375 counters were unchanged, 634 untraded and 22 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.19 billion shares worth RM800.36 million.

SapuraKencana gained six sen to RM1.50 while Maxis rose four sen to RM6.29.

Asian markets were up following the uptrend in Wall street due to the bullish US retail data and a recovery in global oil prices.

A host of central banks are meeting today and the outcome on interest rates is expected to support regional sentiment while talks of easing Brexit uncertainties continued to attract investors to riskier assets.

The FBM Emas Index rose 29.72 points to 11,825.57, the FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 37.34 points to 12,467.47 and the FBMT100 Index perked 28.52 points to 11,519.95.

The FBM 70 was up 45.56 points at 13,616.92 and the FBM Ace advanced 44.23 points to 5,495.94.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index recovered 15.84 points to 14,469.25, the Industrial Index inched up 1.57 points to 3,177.34 and the Plantation Index was 26.04 points higher at 7,699.68.

Of heavyweights, Westports added eight sen to RM4.50, Genting improved five sen to RM8.29 while both Petronas Chemicals and Public Bank increased four sen each to RM6.68 and RM19.70, respectively. 

Among gainers, KESM up 14 sen at RM6.82, Pos Malaysia and DKSH inched up 10 sen each to RM3.35 and RM4.66, respectively, while Gas Malaysia added nine sen to RM2.50. — Bernama