KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 16 —  Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trading session higher, buoyed by continued buying interest in selected heavyweights and in line with the positive sentiment in regional bourses.

At the lunch break, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 3.39 points to 1,525.73 after moving between 1,518.93 and 1,528.10 throughout the session.

The index opened 0.87 of-a-point easier at 1,521.47 from Monday’s close of 1,522.34.

However, the broader market remained negative as decliners outpaced gainers 485 to 336, while 439 counters were unchanged, 1,056 untraded and 45 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.80 billion units valued at RM1.07 billion.

Rakuten Trade said the index was hanging precariously above its support level of 1,520.

"Therefore, we reckon some bargain hunting to emerge as we expect the index to hover within the 1,520 to 1,530 range today,” it said in a note today.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM8.10 while Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals were one sen higher at RM4.02 and RM8.30, respectively.

Of the actives, ARB gained three sen to 19.5 sen, PDZ inched up half-a-sen to nine sen while KNM was flat at 18.5 sen.

Among the top gainers, Mytech increased 95 sen to RM6.80, Nestle bagged 40 sen to RM133.50, Yinson added 34 sen to RM6.09 and KL Kepong advanced 20 sen to RM20.50.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 14.55 points to 11,286.30, the FBMT 100 Index bagged 16.39 points to 10,922.17 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 16.90 points to 12,293.77.

The FBM ACE eased 79.06 points to 6,895.81 and the FBM 70 fell 8.47 points to 14,918.14.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index went up 0.10 of-a-point to 200.04, the Plantation Index improved 34.96 points to 6,590.60 and the Financial Services Index was 16.64 points higher at 15,172.44. — Bernama