KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 —  Bursa Malaysia extended its uptrend at mid-morning as shares belonging to Top Glove and Hartalega remained higher, while Petronas-linked stocks in the limelight amid prospects of improving global oil demand.

At 11am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) increased 8.93 points to 1,594.49 compared with yesterday’s close of 1,585.56.

The market had opened 2.24 points lower at 1,583.32.

Market breadth was positive as gainers surpassed losers 409 to 370, while 417 counters were unchanged, 769 untraded and 28 others suspended.

Total volume jumped to 5.25 billion units worth RM1.91 billion.

On the domestic front, heavyweights — Top Glove was 90 sen higher at RM22.70, Hartalega went up 60 sen to RM16.20, PetChem inched up seven sent to RM6.25.

Hap Seng added 13 sen to RM8.76, MISC increased three sen to RM7.93, Petronas Gas rose two sen to RM16.60 and Petronas Dagangan expanded four sen to RM21.04.

Nestle was up RM1 to RM142.00, while Axiata, TNB and CIMB added two sen each to RM3.43, RM11.38 and RM3.69 respectively.

Of the most actives, Netx was flat at one sen, XOX edged up 1.5 sen to 11.5 sen, and Pegasus appreciated one sen to three sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index improved 62.91 points to 11,247.56, the FBMT 100 Index increased 64.34 points to 11,101.29 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index jumped 108.06 points to 12,915.48.

The FBM 70 added 89.44 points to 13,952.39 and the FBM ACE appreciated rose 70.24 points to 7,306.40.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index slipped 14.84 points to 13,519.37, the Plantation Index inched up 19.90 points to 6,982.25 and the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.70 of-a-point better to 138.47. — Bernama