KUALA LUMPUR, May 25 — Bursa Malaysia ended mixed at morning session today with the benchmark barometer finishing higher, lifted by gains on finance sector index-linked heavyweights but weaker on broader market,  dealers said.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 10.74 points higher at 1,781.75 from the 1,771.01 at close yesterday.

After opening 3.29 points higher at 1,774.30, the index moved between 1,773.22 and 1,782.51   throughout the session.

On market breadth, losers outpaced gainers 523 to 349, with 357 counters unchanged, 552 untraded and 28 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.61 billion shares worth RM1.49 billion.

A dealer said FBM KLCI continued to trend higher, supported by gains on financial stocks in index-linked heavyweight counters.

The performance was in line with most Asian peers which firmed today, taking the cue from the stronger overnight Wall Street performance despite the Federal Reserve’s most recent minutes indicated it would probably raise interest rates as early as next month.

For heavyweights, Maybank rose 21 sen to RM9.57, Sime Darby shed two sen to RM9.30, Petronas Chemical slid three sen to RM7.40, while TNB and Public Bank were flat at RM13.82 and RM20.08, respectively.

Of actives, AirAsia X eased 1.5 sen to 43.5 sen, Inta Bina added 5.5 sen to 30.5 sen, DRB Hicom gained three sen to RM1.71, Dagang Nexchange edged up  one sen to 60 sen, and AirAsia garnered 17 sen to RM3.11.

Among index-linked gainers, CIMB Group rose 22 sen to RM6.35, Genting Malaysia gained 24 sen to RM6.35, AMMB Holdings went up 18 sen to RM5.45, and Hong Leong Financial jumped 46 sen to RM16.72.

The FBM Emas Index was 58.32 points higher at 12,732.88, the FBMT 100 Index gained 63.28 points to 12,359.04, the FBM 70 added 35.81 points to 15,221.80, and the FBM Ace edged up 1.17 points to 6,556.89.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 18.77 points to 12,970.56.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index surged 17.64 points to 8,071.47, the Finance Index jumped 252.38 points to 16,621.22 and the Industrial Index increased 9.87 points to 3,282.63. — Bernama