KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia turned higher at mid-morning on bargain hunting after recording losses yesterday.

At 11.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 4.38 points better or 0.25 per cent higher at 1,759.30 from yesterday's close of 1,754.92.

The index opened 1.18 points easier at 1,753.74.

On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 414 to 244, with 324 counters unchanged, 821 counters untraded and 21 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 921.31 million shares worth RM630.69 million.

The local bourse also tracked the positive momentum of its regional peers, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng up 0.36 per cent at 26,619.76, Singapore’s Straits Times rose 0.16 per cent to 3,311.44 and Japan’s Nikkei advanced 0.11 per cent at 20,021.49, supported by optimism over China's economy.

Among heavyweights, Maybank gained three sen to RM9.63, Sime Darby rose one sen to RM9.56, CIMB added 15 sen to RM6.48, PBBank was flat at RM20.36 and Tenaga slipped two sen to RM14.14.

Of actives, IWCity bagged six sen foro RM1.60, MLab rose 2.5 sen to 30.5 sen, Ekovest improved four sen at RM1.21 and both GDex and Johan were 1.5 sen better at 72 sen and 32 sen respecitvely.

The FBM Emas Index jumped 34.55 points to 12,552.09, the FBMT100 Index improved 32.80 points to 12,190.91 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index advanced 12.71 points to 12,722.74.

The FBM 70 improved 49.58 points to 14,968.29 and the FBM Ace was 15.32 points better at 6,838.07.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index increased 76.02 points to 16,734.98, the Industrial Index gained 4.16 points to 3,270.90 and the Plantation Index was 18.84 points higher at 7,883.17. — Bernama