KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 27 — Bursa Malaysia remained higher at mid-afternoon today, supported by gains in selected heavyweights.

At 3.04pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) edged up 0.78 of-a-point to 1,604.33 from yesterday’s close of 1,603.55, after opening 3.62 points weaker at 1,599.93.

On the broader market, gainers led losers 418 to 330, while 370 counters remained unchanged, 858 untraded and 19 others suspended. 

Turnover amounted to 1.50 billion shares worth RM809.32 million.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said after a retreat on Boxing Day, window dressing will resume on Bursa Malaysia over the near term as the upside will be in tandem with a strong surge on Wall Street overnight.

"As it is, there remains no change in the market’s fundamentals and the upsides will largely be on the positivity of overseas equity markets that are expected to permeate to the local bourse,” it said in a note today. 

Among the heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM8.64, Public Bank added four sen to RM19.72, TNB declined 14 sen to RM13.24, Petronas Chemicals fell one sen to RM7.37 and CIMB gained one sen to RM5.26.

Of the actives, Sapura Energy and TDM both increased two sen to 28 sen and 34 sen, respectively, while Bumi Armada and MLabs Systems were unchanged at 54 sen and 4.5 sen respectively.

The FBM Emas Index improved 11.54 points to 11,399.09, the FBM Emas Shariah Index was up 27.65 points to 12,026.90 and the FBMT 100 Index climbed 26.59 points to 11,195.69. 

The FBM Ace declined 20.57 points to 5,128.73 but the FBM 70 increased 120.56 points to 14,196.39. 

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index rose 14.55 points at 15,592.20, the Plantation Index expanded 63.70 points to 7,671.69 and the Industrial Products and Services Index gained 0.21 of-a-point to 153.40. — Bernama