KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 17 — Bursa Malaysia continued to trade on a cautious and tight range mode in the morning session and ended it marginally higher in tracking the mixed performance by its Asian peers, while taking cue from the firmer overnight Wall Street, dealers said.

At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 0.66 of a point better at 1,774.41, after moving between 1,773.24 and 1,775.39.

It opened 1.06 points higher from yesterday's close of 1,773.75.

Market breadth was positive, as gainers led losers 367 to 314, with 360 counters unchanged, 806 untraded and 32 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 911.18 million shares worth RM744.20 million.

A dealer said Asian markets were mixed on cautious sentiment as investors digested the US Federal Reserves (Fed) minutes released yesterday, and new developments surrounding President Donald Trump’s administration.

"The US dollar halted its rally, while US Treasury prices and gold rose after Trump announced the disbanding of two high-profile business advisory councils on Wednesday, and cast doubts on his ability to push his pro-business agenda.

"The Fed's minutes on Wednesday revealed that policymakers were quite divided in their opinion on future interest rate increases and concerned over weak inflation," he added.

On the local front, trading volume continued to remain subdued, while indicators are also displaying fairly neutral signs, suggesting some sideways consolidation.

Regionally, Japan's Nikkei 225 slid 0.06 per cent to 19,717.75, Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.04 per cent to 27,396.80, the Singapore Straits Times index fell 0.44 per cent to 3,264.58, while South Korea's Kospi improved 0.51 per cent to 2,360.84.

Among heavyweights, Maybank bagged five sen to RM9.74, Petronas Chemicals gained one sen to RM7.71, Public Bank shed two sen to RM20.56, while Tenaga, Sime Darby and CIMB Group were flat at RM14.22, RM9.30 and RM6.77 respectively.

Of the actives, JAG shed one sen to 14.5 sen, IFCA MSC improved two sen to 41.5 sen, KNM Group gained 1.5 sen to 24.5 sen, TA Global edged up half-a-sen to 37.5 sen and JAG warrant was flat at 5.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index was up 18.04 points at 12,616.10, the FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 25.51 points to 12,756.83 and the FBMT 100 Index improved 14.64 points to 12,273.54.

The FBM 70 increased 55.69 points to 14,986.60, while the FBM Ace fell 19.88 points to 6,569.46.

Sectorwise, the Finance Index bagged 19.61 points to 16,782.39, the Industrial Index shed 1.42 points to 3,234.71 and the Plantation Index fell 25.57 points at 7,779.13. — Bernama