KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 13 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia remained firmer at mid-afternoon today with interest seen in selected oil and gas, banking and consumer counters.

At 2.46pm, the benchmark index added 8.89 points to 1,835.5.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index increased 79.03 points to 16,810.051, the Plantation Index rose 12.82 points to 8,637.17 and the Industrial Index was 25.85 points higher at 3,113.26.

The FBM Emas Index surged 46.23 points to 12,705.67, the FBMT100 Index perked up 47.41 points to 12,407.36, the FBM Ace garnered 49.72 points to 6,010.9, but the FBM 70 was up 3.60 points to 14,097.13.

Losers slightly led gainers by 366 to 361, with 833 counters unchanged.

Turnover totalled 1.18 billion shares worth RM843 million.

Among volume leaders, Iris Corporation added 3.5 sen at 42 sen, Daya Materials inched up 1.5 sen to 40 sen and Minetech gained half-a-sen to 21.5 sen.

For heavyweights, Maybank rose 11 sen to RM9.92, Tenaga added 12 sen to RM11.70 but Axiata was flat at RM6.75. — Bernama