KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 2 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia remained higher at mid-morning today, bolstered by interest in finance counters, dealers said.

At 11am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 3.57 points to 1,772.6, after opening 0.94 point better at 1,769.97.

Maybank added one sen to RM9.81, Public Bank rose six sen to RM17.72 and Hong Leong Bank improved 10 sen to RM14.04.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index increased 39.59 points to 16,438.59, the Industrial Index added 16.52 points to 3,056.56 and the Plantation Index rose 27.15 points to 8,342.99.

The FBM Emas Index added 26.13 points to 12,327.56, the FBM100 Index increased 25.88 points to 12,063.76, the FBM 70 gained 36.63 points to 14,045.17 and the FBM ACE went up by 8.66 points to 5,533.23.

Advancers led decliners 287 to 199, with 298 counters unchanged, 811 untraded and 14 others suspended.

Volume stood at 655.86 million shares worth RM406.64 million.

Among actives, The Media Shoppe and Karambunai-ORD added half-a-sen each to

18.5 sen and 6.5 sen respectively, while Sona Petroleum-WA was flat at 29 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Axiata improved one sen to RM6.90, CIMB was flat at RM7.50 while Sime Darby added one sen to RM9.51. – Bernama