KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10 — Bursa Malaysia extended gains at mid-morning today on bargain-hunting with finance stocks among the top gainers.

At 11am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 9.24 points better at 1,697.74, from the 1,688.50 recorded at Wednesday's close.

The index opened 11.23 points better at 1,699.73.

The market resumed trading today after being closed for the Thaipusam holiday yesterday.

On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 396 to 262, with 366 counters unchanged, 673 counters untraded and 17 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 993.04 million shares worth RM522.75 million.

Among the finance stocks, Public Bank was up 22 sen to RM20.20, Maybank rose 10 sen to RM8.30, CIMB gained nine sen to RM5.09, RHB bagged 12 sen to RM5.16 and Hong Leong Bank improved six sen to RM13.30.

Of the gainers, BAT rose 64 sen to RM45.08 and Malaysia Pacific Industries improved 23 sen to RM8.88.

Top losers, on the other hand, were Petronas Gas, down 34 sen to RM20.36, F&N declining 16 sen to RM23.30 and Mesiniaga falling 14 sen to RM1.05.

Among heavyweights, Tenaga and Maxis expanded two sen each to RM13.48 and RM6.31 respectively, Sime Darby perked three sen to RM9.01 and IHH eased five sen to RM6.28.

For the actives, MMAG increased half-a-sen to six sen, Hibiscus added one sen to 53.5 sen, while Borneo Oil was flat at 17 sen.

The FBM Emas Index improved 48.29 points to 11,951.07, the FBMT100 Index was 48.29 points higher at 11,633.46 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index advanced 17.14 points to 12,462.89.

The FBM Ace rose 24.77 points to 5,236.55, but the FBM 70 fell 0.40 of-a-point to 13,792.55.

The Finance Index bagged 151.08 points to 15,017.84, the Industrial Index was 8.43 points higher at 3,225.26 and the Plantation Index jumped 65.72 points to 8,225.76. — Bernama