KUALA LUMPUR, March 12 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia were higher at midday in tracking global peers, after closing at an intra-day low yesterday on late selling pressure.

At lunch break, the key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) advanced 7.45 points to 1,672.08 from yesterday’s 1,664.63. It opened 3.33 points better at 1,667.96.

The index moved between 1,664.63 and 1,666.84 throughout the morning session.

Market breadth turned positive today as gainers led losers 445 to 285, while 365 counters were unchanged, 809 untraded and 20 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 1.72 billion shares worth RM1 billion.

As for other heavyweights, Maybank rose three sen to RM9.50, PBBank gained 16 sen to RM24.36, PChem perked four sen to RM9.24, but Tenaga lost two sen to RM12.60.

Among actives, Sapnrg added one sen to 32.5 sen, Velesto advanced 2.5 sen to 30.5 sen, MyEG was up eight sen to RM1.31, while Armada bagged 1.5 sen to 18 sen.

The FBM Emas Index rose 61.68 points to 11,698.35, the FBMT 100 expanded 59.89 points to 11,548.18 and the FBM 70 leapt 107.88 points to 14,157.97, as the FBM Emas Shariah Index went up 55.78 points to 11,705.74.

The FBM Ace Index advanced 52.32 points to 4,734.65.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services index was 86.02 points higher at 17,400.33, and the Industrial Products and Services Index was 1.02 points better at 169.70, but the Plantation Index was 4.16 points easier at 7,246.38. — Bernama