Malaysian share prices rose 0.4 percent on Thursday, due to interest in select blue chips, plantation and finance stocks which was offset by intermittent profit-taking, dealers said. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index rose 7.64 points to close at 883.16.
"Local, government-linked funds were among the most active while more aggressive retail investors executed some speculative intraday trades," a dealer told Dow Jones newswires. Volumes remained thin with many investors still away on Lunar New Year holidays, he added. Among advancing stocks, IOI Corp rose 2.7 percent to 3.84 ringgit, Bumiputra-Commerce rose 1.6 percent to 6.30 ringgit and KL Kepong jumped 3.7 percent to 9.90 ringgit.