KUALA LUMPUR, May 25 ― Bursa Malaysia remained in positive territory at mid-afternoon, lifted by gains on finance sector index-linked heavyweights, dealers said.

At 3.03pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,781, up 10.32 points, from yesterday's close of  1,771.01.

The index opened 3.29 points higher at 1,774.30, at 9am.

However on broader market, losers outpaced gainers 546 to 361 with 362 counters unchanged, 512 untraded and 28 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.99 billion shares worth RM1.86 billion.

The local bourse's firmer performance was in line with most Asian peers, taking the cue from the stronger overnight Wall Street performance, as well as oil prices rally ahead of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' meeting later today, which is highly expected to extend output cuts into 2018.

For heavyweights, Maybank rose 17 sen to RM9.53, Petronas Chemicals slid three sen to RM7.40 while TNB, Public Bank and Sime Darby were flat at RM13.82, RM20.08 and RM9.32 respectively.

Of actives, AirAsia X eased one sen to 44 sen, Inta Bina added 5.5 sen to 30.5 sen, DRB Hicom and Insas warrant gained six sen each to RM1.74 and 37.5 sen while PUC Founder edged up half-a-sen to 15.5 sen.

Among other index-linked gainers, CIMB Group rose 25 sen to RM6.38, Genting Malaysia gained 34 sen to RM6.29, AMMB Holdings went up 20 sen to RM5.47, and Hong Leong Financial jumped 46 sen to RM16.72.

The FBM Emas Index was 60.56 points higher at 12,735.12, the FBMT 100 Index gained 62.61 points to 12,358.37 and the FBM 70 added 43.59 points to 15,229.58.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 30.76 points to 12,958.57 and the FBM Ace slipped 17 points to 6,538.72.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index surged 11.98 points to 8,065.81, the Finance Index jumped 265.38 points to 16,634.22 and the Industrial Index increased 10.81 points to 3,283.57. ― Bernama