Malaysian shares closed at its highest in nearly a month on Monday, in line with regional markets as world oil prices slipped further and eased concerns about the health of the global economy.
Dealers said strong US jobs data that lifted Wall Street on Friday also inspired some local bulls, but they worried the index's up-trend may be unsustainable in the coming days as volume was stubbornly weak.
Malaysia's 100-stock Composite Index finished up 1.61 percent at 815.73 points, led by power firm Tenaga Nasional, its third-largest component.
Overall market volume was light at 259 million shares worth 626 million ringgit ($165 million), with advancing stocks beating decliners by three to one.
"Most probably there'll be some intermittent selling pressure in the next few days. There's a limited number of people buying in the market," said Heddy Humaizi Hussain, a technical analyst at Mayban Securities.
Banking stocks, seen as the main beneficiary of a growing economy, were actively traded.
Shares of second-biggest lender Commerce Asset-Holding Bhd gained 4.8 percent to 4.82 ringgit. Malayan Banking, the biggest bank in terms's of assets, rose 1.0 percent to 10.00 ringgit.
Malaysian Plantations Bhd (MPlant) rose as much as 3.1 percent to 2.31 ringgit after its unit Alliance Merchant Bank agreed to buy five firms including, a stock-brooking company, for 273 million ringgit in cash.
MPlant closed 2.2 percent up at 2.29 ringgit.
Alliance will buy the firms from Kuala Lumpur City Corp shares of KL City ended up 1.1 percent at 96 cents.
Construction firm MTD Capital, which said after-hours on Friday it would not raise its 393.5 million ringgit ($104 million) offer for one-fifth of rival IJM Corp, was unchanged at 3.20 ringgit.
Among losers was pay-TV operator Astro, which fell as much as 3.0 percent to 4.52 ringgit on continued selling due to fears newcomer MiTV may grab market share when it launches Malaysia's second commercial cable TV later this year.
Astro erased some of its losses to end 2.2 percent down at 4.56 ringgit.
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