KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 11 — Bursa Malaysia pared earlier gains but remained in positive territory at mid-morning on continued buying support in selected heavyweights, amid cautious sentiment in regional markets, dealers said.

At 11am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 6.13 points to 1,502.86 from 1,496.73 on Monday.

The index opened 2.70 points better at 1,499.43.

Market breadth was positive as gainers outpaced losers 475 versus 391, while 401 counters were unchanged, 937 untraded, and nine others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.81 billion units worth RM1.04 billion.

ActicTrades’ trader Anderson Alves said that Asian equities were mixed on Wednesday following similar performance on Wall Street overnight.

"The Delta variant continues to drive growth revisions in the region as restrictions are being extended. In Australia, Victoria’s State Premier extended Melbourne’s lockdown for another seven days while South Korea’s daily Covid-19 cases hit a record 2,200 for the first time.

"Traders are watching the recent high-frequency data to see if economies in the region will first experience a period of disinflation before inflationary pressures kick off again,” he said in a research note today.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank went up 4.0 sen to RM8.04, TNB added 5.0 sen to RM9.73, IHH Healthcare increased 1.0 sen to RM5.80, but Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals slipped 1.0 sen each to RM3.95 and RM7.99, respectively.

Among the actives, DNex advanced 4.0 sen to 85.5 sen, TA Win and Scope Industries perked up 1.5 sen each to 18.5 sen and 29 sen, respectively, while Serba Dinamik improved 1.0 sen to 41.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 43.85 points higher at 11,042.19, the FBMT 100 Index advanced 45.34 points to 10,752.48, the FBM 70 jumped 67.63 points to 14,662.57, the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 58.63 points to 12,130.82, while the FBM ACE gained 74.71 points to 7,268.92.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index bagged 47.14 points to 14,774.07 and the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.78 of-a-point to 190.10, while the Plantation Index climbed 24.20 points to 6,125.54. — Bernama