KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 ― Continuous support for energy and plantation-related counters and further recovery in regional markets bolster Bursa Malaysia's main index uptrend at midafternoon.

At 3.15pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) garnered 14 points to 1,552.61 compared to yesterday's close of 1,538.61.

The benchmark index opened 0.11 of-a-point higher at 1,538.72.

Domestic market breadth also exhibited improvement with gainers edging losers 480 to 471, while 458 counters were unchanged, 889 untraded and nine others suspended.

Turnover stood at 2.68 billion units worth RM1.68 billion.

Heavyweights gained traction with 25 counters in positive territory led by Petronas Chemicals, which rose 22 sen to RM7.06.

YTL Power and Sime Darby bagged 11 sen each to RM3.91 and RM2.62 respectively.

IOI rose five sen to RM4.03 and CIMB was four sen higher at RM6.44.

As for the actives, Dialog soared 27 sen to RM2.13, while TWL and Fitters were flat at 3.5 sen and 5.0 sen respectively.

Hong Seng rose half-a-sen to 2.5 sen and Bumi Armada gained four sen to 60 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index garnered 99.74 points to 11,520.39, the FBMT 100 Index jumped 106.02 points to 11,174.39, the FBM Emas Shariah Index climbed 103.78 points to 11,581.76 and the FBM 70 Index soared 168.73 points to 15,500.78.

However, the FBM ACE Index slid 11.67 points to 4,853.63.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index was 100.44 points stronger at 17,352.10, the Plantation Index gained 68.10 points to 7,366.84, the Energy Index was 45.28 points higher at 941.34 and the Industrial Products and Services Index perked 1.89 points to 177.50. ― Bernama