KUALA LUMPUR, April 25 ― Bursa Malaysia was higher at mid-afternoon today, with buying interests interspersed with mild profit-taking.

At 3pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,760.11, up 4.06 points, from last Friday's close of 1,756.05. The key index opened 9.03 points better at 1,765.08.     

It moved within a 7.47-point range of between 1,765.94 and 1,758.47 points.

Market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers 482 to 378 with 377 counters unchanged, 523 counters untraded and 23 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 2.39 billion shares worth RM1.52 billion.

CIMB, which saw strong buying support, contributed 1.51 points to the increase in the key index. It rose 10 sen to RM5.71 with 9.96 million shares traded.

Other leading movers in the composite index component stocks were AMMB (up 13 sen to RM5.30), PPB Group (up 30 sen to RM17.20) and, Axiata (up 3 sen to RM5.09).

The FBM Emas Index rose 44.79 points to 12,535.37, the FBMT 100 Index increased 42.76 points to 12,168.98 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 48.96 points to 12,897.02.

The FBM 70 surged 107.11 points to 14,837.89, but the FBM Ace declined 33.55 points to 6,124.57.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index improved 72.22 points to 16,080.80, the Plantation Index climbed 22.44 points to 8,049.71, while the Industrial Index advanced 1.95 points to 3,211.51. 

Among actively-traded stocks, Tiger and PWorth improved one sen to eight sen and 25 sen respectively, AirAsia X and DNEX rose 3.5 sen to 43.5 sen and 54 sen, while Key Alliance shed half-a-sen to 8.5 sen.

The top gainer was Danainfra Nasional (bond), which rose 75 sen to RM101 and the top loser was British American Tobacco, which fell 94 sen to RM45.58. ― Bernama