KUALA LUMPUR, May 3 — The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) maintained its uptrend at mid-afternoon, buoyed by continuous buying mainly in selected blue chips such as Maybank, Axiata and Hartalega.

At 3pm, the benchmark index was up 3.26 points at 1,635.50 compared with Thursday’s close of 1,632.24.

After opening 0.71 of-a-point lower at 1,631.53, the benchmark index moved between 1,625.56 and 1,635.58.

The broader market, however, stayed negative as losers led gainers 401 to 337, with 358 counters unchanged, 809 untraded and 18 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.78 billion shares worth RM1.12 billion.

Among the heavyweight counters, Maybank and Public Bank rose two sen each to RM9.27 and RM22.50 respectively, while Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM8.95 with TNB fell four sen to RM12.24.

Of the actively-traded stocks, Ekovest was six sen higher at 88.5 sen, while Impiana Hotels and Bumi Armada were flat at 4.5 sen and 22 sen respectively.

United Plantations remained the top gainer, increasing 40 sen to RM26.60, followed by Amway which improved 21 sen to RM6.17 and Axiata, which rose nine sen to RM4.04.

The FBM Emas Index gained 18.02 points to 11,591.67, the FBMT 100 Index was 18.42 points better at 11,413.36 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was up 24.13 points at 11,749.51.

The FBM 70 added 5.74 points to 14,473.43 and the FBM Ace improved 30.51 points to 4,634.64.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index rose 10.32 points to 16,925.04 and the Plantation Index added 14.09 points to 7,220.02 but the Industrial Products & Services Index was 0.05 of-a-point lower at 169.03. — Bernama