KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 12 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session higher today, due to gains in most heavyweights as recovering oil prices helped lift market sentiment.

At 12.30 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 3.52 points better at 1,678.73 from yesterday’s close of 1,675.21.

After opening 0.43 of-a-point higher at 1,675.64 today, the local index moved between 1,673.44 and 1,682.74. 

Gainers outpaced decliners 460 to 250, while 343 counters were unchanged, 680 untraded and 27 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.41 billion shares worth RM953.8 million.

A dealer said market sentiment would likely remain positive as long as oil prices remain at the current levels.

The overnight US Crude price stood at US$52.28 per barrel, three cents higher, while Brent Crude ended US$1.46 higher at US$55.10 a barrel.  

"Furthermore, we believe market sentiment was also supported by US President-elect Donald Trump’s press conference yesterday, which lacked clarity

on the giant economy’s fiscal policy, thus weakening sentiment towards the greenback,” he added.

Among heavyweights, Maybank and Sime Darby added one sen each to RM8.31 and RM8.51 respectively, TNB rose two sen to RM14.02, while Public Bank declined two sen to RM20.04.

On actives, IFCA MSC was 3.5 sen better at 40 sen, BioAlpha rose 1.5 sen to 23 sen and Hibiscus Petroleum gained 2.5 sen to 52.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index inched up 30.24 points to 11,749.36, the FBMT100 Index was 28.62 points higher at 11,454.23 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 25.48 points better at 12,270.44. 

The FBM 70 surged 51.26 points to 13,393.79 and the FBM Ace increased 53.69 points to 5,177.34. 

On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index edged up 15.06 points to 3,189.96, the Finance Index rose 39.7 points to 14,782.42 and the Plantation Index added 0.28 of-a-point to 7,911. — Bernama