KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9 — The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) continued its strong performance at mid-afternoon boosted by gains in plantation counters, dealers said.

At 3pm, the FBM KLCI was 12.51 points higher at 1,839.46.

Plantation stocks Sime Darby rose seven sen to RM9.60, IOI Corporation added 10 sen to RM6 and Felda Global Ventures gained six sen to RM4.61.

Market breadth remained positive with advancers leading decliners 405 to 256 with 302 counters unchanged, 594 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Volume transacted amounted to 681.64 million shares valued at RM697.141 million.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index rose 65.08 points to 16,823.91, the Plantation Index surged 88.35 points to 9,086.95 and the Industrial Index added 31.93 points to 3,129.30.

The FBMT100 Index gained 81.13 points to 12,443.26, the FBM Emas Index increased 81.34 points to 12,708.27, the FBM 70 garnered 78.06 points to 14,176.77 and the FBM Ace rose 15.19 points to 5,568.49.

Among actives, Sanichi Technology fell half-a-sen to 9.5 sen, Sona Petroleum-WA added 1.5 sen to 28 sen and Tiger Synergy rose half-a-sen to 21.5 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank improved eight sen to RM9.91, CIMB added two sen to RM7.69 while Tenaga Nasional was flat at RM11. — Bernama