KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia remained higher at mid-afternoon today, spurred by continued buying momentum in the finance stocks, dealers said.

As at 3 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,745.5 points, up 10.42 points.

Market breadth was positive with gainers leading losers 398 to 309 with 275 counters unchanged, 749 untraded and eight others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.29 billion shares worth RM1.21 billion.

The FBM Emas Index jumped 69.83 points to 11,991.16, the FBMT100 Index soared 69 points to 11,722.58, while the FBM Emas Syariah Index eased 0.4 of a point to 12,488.68.

The FBM 70 increased 72.89 points to 13,026.73, while the FBM Ace gained 51.58 points to 5,946.47.

On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index shed 6.51 points to 3,163.1, the Plantation Index added 1.73 points to 7,814.95, while the Finance Index shot up 301.24 points to 15,398.2.

Of the actively-traded stocks, Systech rose three sen to 27 sen, Iris Corp went up one sen to 31.5 sen, Asia Bioenergy earned half-a-sen to 16 sen while Hubline was flat four sen.

Among heavyweights, TNB improved six sen to RM14.26, Maybank was four sen higher at RM8.62, while Public declined four sen to RM17.48 and Axiata fell five sen to RM7. - BERNAMA