KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 29 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia remained marginally higher at mid-morning today, bolstered by finance-linked counters with Hong Leong Financial gaining 20 sen to RM17.58, dealers said. 

As at 11.12am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,841.58, up 1.08 points, after opening better at 1,841.05.  Of the heavyweights, Maybank rose five sen to RM9.90, and Public Bank gained two sen to RM9.90.

But Tenaga Nasional slipped two sen to RM12.26.  Among actives, Berjaya Corp added 1.5 sen to 58.5 sen, PDZ Holdings slipped one sen to 30 sen and Takaso improved one sen to 60.5 sen. 

The top gainers were Press Metal-Wc, which rose 46 sen to RM4.25, Lafarge Malaysia adding 20 sen to RM10.48 and Tasek Corp gaining 20 sen to RM15.76. 

Market breadth was positive as gainers outpaced losers 316 to 274, while 358 counters were unchanged, 683 untraded and 38 others suspended. 

Volume stood at 1.13 billion shares worth RM531.18 million.    

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index rose 30.641 points to 17,175.41 and the Industrial Index gained 0.85 of a point to 3,208.84.But the Plantation Index fell 14.84 points to 8,401.86.

The FBM Emas Index was 7.21 points higher at 12,904.26, the FBM 70 increased 5.141 points to 14,319.15, the FBMT100 Index rose 6.66 points to 12,482.41 and the FBM ACE bagged 22.6 points for 7,315.76.  — Bernama