KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 7 — After trading sideways in the morning session, Bursa Malaysia managed to stay in positive territory at mid-morning on continued buying support in the key index led by Maybank, Top Glove and IOI Corp.

At 11.05 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ticked up 0.83 point to 1,516.69 from last Friday's close of 1,515.86.

The key index eased 1.23 points at the opening.

Market breadth, however, turned negative with losers overtaking gainers 471 to 419, while 354 counters were unchanged, 792 untraded and 36 others suspended.

Trading volume stood at 2.88 billion shares worth RM1.25 billion.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank, Top Glove and IOI Corp added half-a-sen each to RM7.26, RM8.43 and RM4.45, while Petronas Gas gained 14 sen to RM17.50 and Hartalega was eight sen better at RM14.08.

Of the actives, JCY inched up six sen to 82.5 sen, Ekovest climbed 5.5 sen to 54 sen, IWCity rose 3.5 sen to 62 sen, Permaju eked out a small gain of half-a-sen to 44.5 sen while Fintec eased one sen to 14.5 sen.

Top gainers Nestle leapt 90 sen to RM140.50, Carlsberg jumped 30 sen to RM20.22, Ipmuda was 21.5 sen better at 51 sen, while Comfort and Aeon Credit bagged 14 sen each to RM4.23 and RM9.34 respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index accumulated 7.23 points to 10,979.53, the FBMT 100 Index was 7.24 points firmer at 10,777.78 and the FBM 70 advanced 14.82 points to 14,413.0.

The FBM ACE surged 97.35 points to 10,903.40 but the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 3.94 points to 13,005.88.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index strengthened 23.39 points to 12,661.25, the Plantation Index improved 19.31 points to 7,082.56 but the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 0.02 point to 136.91. — Bernama