KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session higher on improved investor sentiment on the back of better crude oil prices.

At lunch break, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,685.97, up 7.89 points, against ysterday's close of 1,678.08.

After opening 3.4 points weaker at 1,674.68, the local index moved between 1,673.10 and 1,686.88 during the morning session.

Advancers led decliners 330 to 297 while 375 counters were unchanged, 668 untraded and 14 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 842.38 million shares worth RM602.05 million. 

A dealer said oil prices pushed ahead amid speculation of a production freeze after the world's two largest oil producers, Russia and Saudi Arabia, agreed to act together to stabilise global oil output.

"Given a rebound in Brent oil prices plus the expectation of second Federal Reserve interest rate increase in September was pushed off slightly hence the local market may experience a technical rebound today,” he said.

Among heavyweights, TNB added two sen to RM14.70, Public Bank gained four sen to RM19.88, IHH and Petronas Chemicals bagged three sen each to RM6.64 and RM6.71, respectively while Maybank slid two sen to RM7.87. 

The most active traded stock this morning was M3 Technologies, which slid half-a sen to 6.5 sen, M3 Technologies warrant was flat at 3.5 sen, Reach Energy warrant added half-a-sen to 3.5 sen while AirAsia X reduced one sen to 40 sen. 

The FBM Emas Index rose 47.82 points to 11,835.79, the FBM Emas Shariah Index advanced 52.91 points to 12,494.94 and the FBMT100 Index firmed 47.81 points to 11,546.33.

The FBM 70 gained 33.85 points to 13,657.39 and the FBM Ace increased 42.46 points to 5,319.60.

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index perked 42.92 points to 14,479.35, the Industrial Index improved 13.91 points to 3,153.26 and the Plantation Index jumped 43.78 points to 7,887.72. — Bernama