KUALA LUMPUR, March 5 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia extend their gains at mid-afternoon today on persistent buying interests following better market sentiment.

At 3.14pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,828.34, up 1.88 points with buying mostly in banking and plantation stocks.

Market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers by 418 to 294, while 319 counters were unchanged, 584 untraded and 14 others suspended.

Turnover totalled 1.68 billion shares worth RM1.21 billion.

A dealer said the positive development over the Ukraine-Russia crisis sparked buying interests among Asian equity markets.

He said investors would also closely monitor China’s annual session of National People’s Congress.

The Finance Index rose 44.11 points to 16,470.24, Industrial Index added 0.72 of a point to 3,133.02 and the Plantation Index gained 18.05 points to 8,795.83.

The FBM Emas increased 20.31 points to 12,639.86, FBMT100 gained 16.52 points to 12,320.07, FBM 70 clinched 33.62 points to 13,846.77 and the FBM Ace improved 49.71 points to 6,536.04.

Among actives, IRIS Corp added 1.5 sen to 59.5 sen while Ingenuity was flat at 11 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank rose three sen to RM9.65 and CIMB gained five sen to RM7.09.

TNB eased four sen to RM11.96, Axiata lost five sen to RM6.53 and Sime Darby shed two sen to RM9.23. — Bernama