KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 — Bursa Malaysia extended its gains at mid-afternoon on bargain-hunting in selected heavyweights, led by Sime Darby Plantation Bhd and Top Glove Corporation Bhd.

Sime Darby Plantation rose 11 sen to RM4.60 while Top Glove gained seven sen to RM4.84, and altogether they contributed 2.50 points to the barometre index.

At 3pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 6.79 points higher at 1,585.70 compared with Tuesday’s close of 1,578.91.

The index opened 5.47 points higher at 1,584.38.

On the broader market, losers led gainers 506 versus 464, while 441 counters were unchanged, 721 untraded and 10 others suspended.

Total volume stood at 4.12 billion shares worth RM2.14 billion.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank rose three sen to RM8.34, and Public Bank added one sen to RM4.21, and Tenaga gained two sen to RM10.18.

Petronas Chemicals shed four sen to RM7.91 while IHH Healthcare was flat at RM5.30.

Among the active counters, Berjaya Corp improved four sen to 44.5 sen, Dagang NeXchange rose five sen to 85.5 sen and Dataprep improved one sen to RM1.11.

Macpie shed one sen to 9.5 sen and MLabs eased half-a-sen to four sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was up 33.52 points to 11,752.14, the FBMT 100 increased 32.39 points to 11,404.81 and the FBM Emas Shariah advanced 45.23 points to 13,020.44.

The FBM 70 fell 18.19 points to 15,779.37 and the FBM ACE slipped 19.35 points to 9,611.80.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index went up 48.02 points to 6,987.65, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.73 of-a-point to 193.87, and the Financial Services Index gained 27.88 points to 15,268.24. — Bernama