KUALA LUMPUR, June 22 ― Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session higher, with the key index remaining in the positive territory on continuous support in heavyweights.

At mid-day, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 2.45 points to 1,574.69 from yesterday’s close of 1,572.24.

The market bellwether, which opened 0.68 of-a-point easier at 1,571.56, fluctuated between 1,571.21 and 1,576.82 throughout the session.

The overall market breadth was positive with gainers outnumbering losers 504 to 373, while 451 counters were unchanged, 875 untraded, and 12 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 2.97 billion units worth RM1.36 billion.

A dealer said bargain hunting emerged as sentiment in the market improved following the strong rebound on Wall Street last night, coupled with the gradual subsiding in the daily COVID-19 cases.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd anticipated the FBM KLCI to trend higher within the 1,575 and 1,585 range today.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank gained two sen to RM8.20, Public Bank added one sen to RM4.19, PChem rose four sen to RM7.99, Tenaga bagged six sen to RM10.06, while IHH lost nine sen to RM5.67.

As for the actives, Serba Dinamik perked up 3.5 sen to 63.5 sen, VSolar and Fintec were flat at 1.5 sen and 3.5 sen respectively, while Privasia added 1.5 sen to 24.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 17.62 points to 11,490.38, the FBMT 100 Index earned 14.92 points to 11,182.23, and the FBM ACE climbed 73.55 points to 7,632.16.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index put on 7.97 points to 12,623.17 while the FBM 70 advanced 10.17 points to 14,922.21.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index went up 21.95 points to 15,267.95, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.97 of-a-point to 190.09, but the Plantation Index lost 34.56 points to 6,562.76. ― Bernama