KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia maintained its positive momentum at mid-afternoon on continuous buying support led by industrial products and services counters, said an analyst.

At 3.11 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 5.34 points to 1,646.78 from Thursday's close of 1,641.44.

Earlier, the benchmark index opened 1.85 points higher at 1,643.29.

In the broader market, advancers outpaced decliners 541 to 394, while 491 counters were unchanged, 1,066 untraded, and 19 suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.74 billion units valued at RM1.29 billion.

Maybank Investment Bank Bhd said in anticipation of the Budget 2025 announcement, it expects the FBM KLCI component sectors such as property, construction, and consumer to demonstrate strength as they are likely to be key beneficiaries.

"Technically, we expect the benchmark index to range between 1,630 and 1,650 points today,with support at 1,623 and 1,596 points," it said in a note.

Among the heavyweights, Press Metal climbed 11 sen to RM4.83, Axiata garnered 5.0 sen to RM2.40, Genting, SD Guthrie and QL Resources all rose 6.0 sen each to RM4.05, RM4.74 and RM4.79 respectively, and PPB Group increased 18 sen to RM14.38.

For the active counters, Northeast Group was up 5.5 sen to 54.5 sen, WCT Holdings added 1.5 sen to 93 sen, Bina Puri ticked up half-a-sen to 35 sen, MYEG rose 1.0 sen to 90.5 sen, and 99Smart shed 5.0 sen to RM2.35.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gained 50.28 points to 12,373.84 while the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased by 72.20 points to 12,289.66.

The FBMT 100 Index climbed 50.17 points to 12,075.91, the FBM 70 Index surged by 114.57 points to 17,737.19, and the FBM ACE Index was 16.20 points better at 5,108.31.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index advanced 39.06 points to 19,494.30, the Energy Index edged up 1.12 points to 857.42, the Plantation Index improved 37.63 points to 7,287.86, and the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 1.22 points to 176.45.