KUALA LUMPUR, July 5 — Bursa Malaysia pared earlier losses to be slightly higher at mid-morning and in line with regional markets, but gains were limited on cautious sentiment over the outcome of the Federal Reserve’s last meeting for the year due later today.

At 11.03am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,762.99, up 0.91 of-a-point against yesterday’s close of 1,762.08.

There were 298 losers and 274 gainers, while 3512 counters were unchanged, 860 untraded and 23 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 509.72 million shares worth RM361.90 million.

For the heavyweights, Maybank, Sime Darby and CIM were flat at RM9.65, RM9.51 and RM6.51 respectively.

TNB rose two sen to RM14.12, Public Bank increased four sen to RM20.34, while Petronas Chemicals declined three sen to RM7.11.

Of the actives, Asia Bioenergy and IFCA were each flat at 16 sen and 40.5 sen, while Dagang Nexchange fell one sen to 59.5 sen.

SIG Gases improved six sen to RM1.02 and NWP rose half-a-sen to 21 sen.

The FBM Emas Index improved 3.52 points to 12,592.06 and the FBM Ace rebounded 21.53 points to 5,544.08, as the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 3.89 points to 12,810.64, and the FBMT100 Index gained 3.68 points to 12,225.05.

However, the FBM 70 slid 5.46 points to 15,042.44.

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index fell 5.60 points to 16,761.51, the Plantation Index shed 9.30 points to 7,900.10, while the Industrial Index added 2.58 points to 3,255.05. — Bernama