KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 1 — Bursa Malaysia remained almost flat at mid-afternoon today, supported by gains in finance-related stocks but Tenaga and Maxis continued to weigh on the local bourse, dealers said.

At 3.0pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 0.65 of-a-point higher at 1,784.90 from yesterday's close of 1,784.25.

The index opened 6.40 points lower at 1,777.85.

On the broader market, gainers led losers 418 to 367 with 402 counters unchanged, 690 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Volume stood at 1.48 billion units valued at RM983.07 million.

Tenaga topped the losers list on profit-taking, losing 46 sen to RM15.22.

A dealer said most regional peers were higher tracking the firmer overnight performance of Wall Street.

However, news that the US plans to consider raising tariffs on US$200 billion of Chinese imports has somewhat brought uncertainty back into financial markets.

Other top losers included Nestle which eased 30 sen to RM147.30 and Ajinomoto which fell 16 sen to RM21.84.

Of the heavyweights, finance-linked counters were traded firmer. Maybank put on four sen to RM9.85, Public Bank rose four sen to RM24.10 and Hong Leong Bank increased eight sen to RM19.14.

CIMB, however, was flat at RM5.84 and Petronas Chemicals added six sen to RM8.99.

Among actives, Nova MSC rose 1.5 sen to 20 sen while Sapura Energy and Borneo Oil each were flat at 60.5 sen and six sen, respectively.

Of the top gainers, Petronas Gas increased 54 sen to RM19.28, Perstima perked 35 sen to RM5.19 and Suiwah put on 24 sen to RM2.45.

The FBM Emas Index was 15.85 points higher at 12,649.00, the FBMT 100 Index recovered 14.58 points to 12,434.68 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 4.53 points to 12,815.28.

The FBM 70 gained 55.75 points to 15,571.69 and the FBM Ace Index improved 42.64 points to 5,442.90.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index bagged 4.84 points to 7,634.06, the Industrial Index was up 19.68 points at 3,295.44 and the Finance Index rose 39.66 points to 17,469.49. — Bernama