KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 2 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session higher on buying support for selected blue chips, led by Public Bank.
At lunch break, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,671.32, up 0.77 of-a-point, after moving between 1,668.87 and 1,675.39 during the morning session.
It opened 4.05 points higher at 1,674.60.
Contributing 0.66 of-a-point to the composite index mid-day, Public Bank chalked up 10 sen to RM19.86 with 932,000 shares traded.
Other leading movers among the composite index components were Maybank and IHH Healthcaren which added three sen each to RM7.78 and RM6.59, respectively, while KL Kepong gained four sen to RM23.62.
A dealer said the local market was also traded higher in tandem with most regional peers.
China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.07 per cent to 3,065.52, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.35 per cent to 23,243.87, while South Korea's KOSPI Index rose 0.19 per cent to 2,036.50.
The dealer said investors are currently focusing on US jobs data, to be released later today, which would be a key factor in the timing of the US interest rate hike.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index rose 7.50 points to 11,742.96, the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 1.46 points to 12,380.15 while the FBMT100 Index firmed 6.07 points to 11,455.78.
The FBM 70 rose 10.08 points to 13,585.85 while the FBM Ace decreased 0.01 of-a-point to 5,201.14.
On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index perked 33.08 points to 14,376.85, the Industrial Index eased 5.47 points to 3,134.54 and the Plantation Index added 14.18 points to 7,809.16.
On the broader market, market breadth was still positive with advancers leading decliners by 353 to 330 while 324 counters were unchanged, 664 untraded and 14 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 700.63 million shares worth RM547.25 million. — Bernama
