Malaysian share prices closed 0.7 percent higher on Wednesday due to buying interest in commodity stocks after world oil prices edged closer to 120 dollars a barrel, dealer said. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) gained 8.86 points to 1,288.16, off a high of 1,295.34 on volume of 922 million shares valued at 1.5 billion ringgit (484 million dollars) while advancers led decliners 530 to 191.
The Malaysian ringgit was quoted at 3.1295/1300 against the US dollar. Pong Teng Siew, head of research at MIMB Investment Bank said the local bourse had "bottomed out.""The rebound is gathering strength with increasing retail participation and it may last a couple of weeks," he said.
Pong said banking and commodity stocks played a big part in today's stronger showing. On Wednesday, commodity counters such as oil and gas and plantation stocks led gainers.Malaysia's top bank, Maybank, added five sen at 8.25 ringgit, Telekom Malaysia gained 49 sen at 3.54 while national power utility Tenaga advanced five sen to 6.75 ringgit.
Among plantation stocks, Batu Kawan topped gainers, rallying 50 sen to 11.40 ringgit while IOI Corp, the second-largest plantation stock on the local bourse, was up 10 sen to 7.60 ringgit.
Sime Darby, the world's largest listed palm oil company, went down 10 sen to 9.85 ringgit, hit by profit taking after earlier gains. Infrastructure group YTL edged down five sen to 7.45 ringgit after the government said it had shelved YTL's proposal to build a high-speed train linking Kuala Lumpur and Singapore because the project was too costly.