KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 11 ― Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session higher on bargain hunting, following the decline yesterday as market sentiment was lifted after overnight gains on Wall Street.

At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 7.49 points to 1,550.29 from Monday's close of 1,542.80.

After opening 2.09 points firmer at 1,544.89 this morning, the local index moved between 1,543.23 and 1,554.67 throughout the morning session.

Market breadth was positive as gainers outpaced losers 401 to 317, with 345 counters unchanged, 920 untraded and 36 others suspended.

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Turnover amounted to 1.58 billion shares worth RM1.01 billion.

A dealer said the FBM KLCI performed better today after the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 clinched closing records yesterday.

“The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 174.31 points to end at 29,276.82, a gain of 0.6 per cent. The S&P 500 index advanced 24.38 points, or 0.7 per cent, ending at 3,352.09. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 107.88 points, or 1.1 per cent, to finish at 9,628.39.

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“Some traders also decided to take advantage of the current low prices to accumulate quality stocks, following yesterday’s losses,” he added.

On the regional front, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 1.25 per cent to 27,583.02, Singapore's Straits Times Index was 0.75 per cent higher at 3,186.77 and the Jakarta Composite Index increased 0.15 per cent to 5,960.87.

Among heavyweights on Bursa Malaysia, Maybank added six sen to RM8.54, Tenaga increased 20 sen to RM12.70, Public bank was two sen higher at RM18.30 and Petronas Chemicals rose 22 sen to RM6.61.

Of the actives, MYEG was 16 sen better at RM1.32, Securemetric was flat at 20.5 sen and DGB Asia lost half-a-sen to eight sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 49.30 points to 11,030.24, the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 61.10 points to 11,743.94 and the FBMT 100 Index gained 46.97 points to 10,829.41.

The FBM 70 was 37.73 points higher at 13,776.66 and the FBM Ace recovered 44.28 points to 5,563.17.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 2.01 points to 146.31, the Financial Services Index was 36.37 points higher at 14,908.21 and the Plantation Index added 6.45 points to 7,302.08. ― Bernama