KUALA LUMPUR, May 2 ― Bursa Malaysia stayed higher at mid-afternoon, supported by gains in selected heavyweights, especially the finance-related counters such as Maybank and Public Bank.

At 3pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,778.47, up 10.41 points from Friday's close of 1,768.06.

Earlier, the index opened 1.10 points higher at 1,769.16.

On the broader market, gainers outpaced decliners 509 to 419 with 329 counters unchanged, 493 untraded and 18 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 2.32 billion shares worth RM1.81 billion.

The market was closed on Monday for the Labour Day public holiday.

Of the finance-related heavyweights, Maybank rose six sen to RM9.64, Public Bank jumped 28 sen to RM20.24 and CIMB Group added 16 sen to RM5.90.

Among other heavyweights, Petronas Chemicals ticked up one sen to RM7.31 and IHH Healthcare was three sen higher at RM6.21.

Of the gainers, Nestle advanced 66 sen to RM82.66, BAT gained 54 sen to RM45.98, MAHB improved 39 sen to RM7.99, while Petron Msia and Poly Glass improved 30 sen each to RM7.10 and 60.5 sen, respectively.

Among the actives, Dagang Nexchange inched up five sen to 65 sen, AbleGroup added seven sen to 19 sen, AirAsia X improved 15 sen to 46.5 sen, while IRIS slid one sen to 19.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index jumped 74.88 points to 12,706.40, the FBMT100 Index perked 75.10 points to 12,334.36, the FBM 70 increased 103.40 points to 15,184.37, and the FBM Ace was 8.85 points better at 6,251.01.

The Finance Index surged 179.82 points to 16,480.99, the Industrial Index rose 10.02 points to 3,229.19, but the Plantation Index lost 11.30 points to 8,086.04. ― Bernama