KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 — Bursa Malaysia remained higher at mid-afternoon on persistent buying support in heavyweights led by Petronas Chemicals and financial services stocks.

At 3.00pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI surged 22.21 points or 1.39 per cent to 1,622.33 from 1,600.12 last Friday.

The key index opened 7.36 points higher at 1,607.48.

Market breadth was positive with gainers leading losers 676 to 529, while 395 counters were unchanged, 572 untraded and eight others suspended.

Total volume stood at 6.84 billion units worth RM3.98 billion.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank increased 18 sen to RM8.54, Public Bank added eight sen to RM4.43, Petronas Chemicals advanced 71 sen to RM8.53, Tenaga gained 10 sen to RM10.44, and IHH Healthcare improved two sen to RM5.35.

Of the actives, Dagang NeXchange gained 9.5 sen to 73 sen and its warrant added 4.5 sen to 35 sen, Sapura Energy and Velesto bagged 1.5 sen each to 16.5 sen and 19.0 sen, respectively, while Komarkcorp shed four sen to 39.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index surged 114.79 points to 11,810.05, the FBMT 100 Index rose 113.44 points to 11,512.01, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 58.59 points higher at 12,994.42.

The FBM 70 decreased 21.33 points to 15,327.32 while the FBM ACE slipped 41.47 points to 10,366.52.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index soared 299.86 points to 15,752.60, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 5.22 points better at 190.06, while the Plantation Index fell 16.93 points to 7,146.49. — Bernama