KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 30 — Bursa Malaysia continued to trade higher in the afternoon with a steady-buying interest in the lower liners.

As at 3.05pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 4.78 points to 1,639.77.

The overall market breadth skewed towards positive territory with gainers outpacing losers 588 to 494, while 455 counters were unchanged, 591 untraded and 62 others suspended.

Volume stood at 5.55 billion units worth RM2.27 billion.

Other heavyweights, Petronas Chemicals, Top Glove and Hartalega surged 12 sen each to RM7.49, RM6.13 and RM12.06, respectively, while Hong Leong Bank advanced 10 sen to RM18.58, Maybank fell four sen to RM8.54, and Public Bank and TNB declined six sen to RM20.64 and RM10.52, respectively.

Among the actives, Sealink appreciated 4.5 sen to 21.5 sen, Pegasus edged up half-a-sen to three sen, MTouche was one sen to eight sen, Parkson rose two sen to 21.5 sen, while Iris Corp was flat at 43.5 sen and Techna-X shed one sen to 16 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 29.48 points to 11,836.17, the FBMT 100 Index went up 23.57 points to 11,582.23, the FBM 70 dropped 8.94 points to 15,214.99, the FBM Emas Shariah Index improved 67.29 points to 13,245.83, and the FBM ACE slipped 20.72 points to 10,681.67.

The Industrial Products and Services Index added 1.56 point to 177.61, the Financial Services Index decreased 31.71 points to 15,421.7 and the Plantation Index expanded 29.21 points to 7,423.34. — Bernama