KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia returned to “blue territory” as the afternoon session started today on fresh buying demand in selected heavyweight stocks, dealers said.

At 3.22pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.17 points higher at 1,861.71 points after opening 0.19 of a point lower at 1,860.35 points.

Market breadth was positive as gainers thumped losers 377 to 306, while 319 counters were unchanged, 614 untraded and 16 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 695.94 million shares worth RM730.53 million.

On the scoreboard, the Industrial Index was 1.61 points weaker at 3,178.53 points, but the Finance Index was 17.08 points higher at 16,956.44 points, and the Plantation Index rose 11.33 points to 9,048.1 points.

The FBM Emas Index improved 12.55 points to 12,875.27 points, the FBMT100 Index gained 10.56 points to 12,530.41 points, the FBM Ace jumped 56.83 points to 6,467.52 points and the FBM 70 rose 2231 points to 14,026.1 points.

Heavyweights Maybank and CIMB gained 1 sen each to RM9.82 and RM7.36 respectively, while Public Bank and TNB added 2 sen each to RM19.82 and RM11.92 respectively.

Among actives, PDZ Holdings went up 2 sen to 16 sen, Iris Corp and Managepay Systems went up 3 sen each to 44 sen and 26.5 sen respectively, and SMRT Holdings rose 7 sen to 43.5 sen. — Bernama