KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16 ― Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session higher, in line with the better performance of Asian shares, as higher oil prices lifted investors mood in the market.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,698.77, up 8.44 points, against Monday's close of 1,690.33 points, and after opening 6.39 points lower at 1,683.94,

The index hovered between 1,683.76 and 1,700.15 throughout the morning trading session.

Gainers outpaced losers 436 to 317 while 374 counters were unchanged, 553 untraded and 18 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.63 billion shares worth RM989.36 million.

Asian shares were up at their one-year high, due to higher Brent crude oil prices which rose over 13 per cent since the start of August.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.1 per cent, bringing its gains so far this year to 9.8 per cent.

On the local front, Kenanga Research said with all the moving averages still lending strength to the bulls in play, the benchmark index was still on course to climb further towards its immediate  resistance level of 1,700 points this week with the next resistance seen at 1,720.

The FBM Emas Index rose 50.34 points to 11,926.07, the FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 54.14 points to 12,582.65 and the FBMT100 Index perked 50.67 points to 11,618.35.

The FBM 70 was up 34.07 points at 13,685.92 but the FBM Ace inched up 2.34 points to 5,514.38.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index was 68.21 points better at 14,561.12, the Industrial Index added 24.76 points to 3,215.01 and the Plantation Index increased 6.84 points to 7,746.3.

Of heavyweights, TNB added six sen to RM14.82, Maybank gained seven sen to RM8.04 and Public Bank was four sen higher at RM19.80.

Among actives were Iris, which added half-a-sen to 17.5 sen, Sumatec was flat at 10 sen and TH Heavy Engineering rose one sen to 19.5 sen. ― Bernama