Malaysian shares, led by top blue chips, rose over two percent to a 53-month high on Tuesday on local and foreign fund buying ahead of key earnings reports that are expected to reflect a strong pick-up in economic growth.
Dealers said the buying was also linked to talk of general election, speculated to be called as early as next month although one is not due until November.
The main Kuala Lumpur Composite Index closed at 845.80 points, up 17.63 points or 2.13 percent on the day.
Comments by a deputy finance minister that fourth-quarter economic growth topped 4.7 percent, taking full-year growth to more than 5.0 percent, encouraged market bulls, dealers said.
The government, which had previously put 2003 growth at 4.5 percent, is due to announce the data later this month.
Top lender Maybank, which is also the biggest capitalised stock, shot up five percent to 10.70 ringgit.
Telekom Malaysia and Tenaga Nasional, the second and third largest stock respectively, were up 3.0 percent and 1.6 percent to 10.40 and 9.65 ringgit respectively.
Top mobile phone company Maxis Communications also joined in the rally, rising five percent to 8.35 ringgit.
Besides Maybank, all other top lenders also rose, with Public Bank up two percent and No 2 lender Commerce Asset soaring six percent.
Malaysian firms must report earnings for the October-December period by the end of February and companies are seen tracking the economy which is officially projected to grow 5.5-6.0 percent this year.
But shares of national carrier Malaysian Airline System softened 0.4 percent to 4.60 ringgit ahead of its third-quarter results.
The airline later reported a 30 percent drop in net profit to 230.08 million ringgit ($60.5 million) from 330.4 million ringgit a year earlier.
The previous year profit was boosted by asset sale.
Overall market volume was a brisk 838 million shares, with 666 gainers and 175 losers.
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