on persistent buying in heavyweight stocks, ahead of the Budget 2018 announcement later today, and led by Tenaga Nasional, CIMB Group and Axiata, dealers said.

At 11am, the  benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 8.82 points higher at 1,745.62, after opening 4.54 points better at 1,741.34  from yesterday's close of 1,736.80.

On the broader market, gainers led losers 377 to 247 with 362 counters unchanged, 889 untraded and 106 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.12 billion shares worth RM646.74 million.

For index-linked stocks, CIMB Group and Axiata gained three sen each to RM6.08 and RM5.30 respectively.

A dealer said major Asian shares also continued theirs gains on Friday, boosted by technology shares while taking cue from the upbeat earnings of US hi-tech giants, while the euro hovered near a three-month low against the dollar after the European Central Bank extended its stimulus.

Of the heavyweights,  TNB surged 80 sen to RM15.14, Sime Darby added one sen to RM9.09, Maybank and Petronas Chemicals eased one sen each to RM9.23 and RM7.39 respectively, while  Public Bank was flat at RM20.48.

Among active counters, TH Heavy Engineering added three sen to 12 sen, UMW Oil & Gas warrant gained 1.5 sen to 16 sen, and PUC and M3 Technologies edged up half-a-sen each to 18.5 sen and 15.5 sen.

Trive Property slid one sen to 16.5 sen and GPA Holdings warrant eased half-a-sen to 4.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index rose 68.23 points to 12,537.93, the  FBMT100 Index was 67.06 points firmer at 12,177.58 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index jumped 126.68 points to 12,972.90. 

The FBM Ace bagged 21.42 points to 6,915.03 and the FBM 70 increased 104.52 points to 15,257.51.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index was 0.81 of a point better at 7,940.25, the Industrial Index slipped 8.67 points to 3,184.76 and the Finance Index slid 1.87 points to 16,239.82. — Bernama