KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed higher for the first time this year, with the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) up 18.88 points, or 1.10 per cent, to 1,728.06 today.

Tenaga was the top contributor to the gain in the key index, adding 38 sen to RM14.20, with 10.53 million shares traded.

Of the other leading movers, KL Kepong surged RM1.00 to RM22.80 and MISC chalked up 23 sen to RM7.40, while Maybank and IHH Healthcare added nine sen each to RM8.70 and RM4.77, respectively.

An equity trader said players welcomed the local lead after weeks of being spooked by global crude oil price bearishness, citing Malaysia's November 2014 export data released yesterday, which saw the country's trade surplus at its highest in three years, successfully attracting buyers.

"Buyers started wading into the rebounded market.

"Local equities today had either just corrected from the recent downtrend or investors just didn't want to miss the boat on Bursa's value buy for 2015," he told Bernama.

He however warned that crude oil prices have not found the bottom or shown clear signs of reversal, thus equity bourses worldwide may again come under pressure should the 'black gold' collapse further.

On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers by 554 to 241 with 268 counters unchanged, 675 counters untraded and 16 others suspended.

Total volume contracted to 1.60 billion shares worth RM1.84 billion from 1.61 billion units worth RM2.06 billion on Wednesday.

On other scoreboards, the FBM Emas Index soared 119.01 points to 11,853.29, the FBMT100 Index rose 114.48 points to 11,590.10 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index surged 139.69 points to 12,379.58.

The FBM 70 jumped 79.53 points to 12,820.19 while the FBM Ace bolstered 142.81 points to 5,844.01. Sector-wise, the Finance Index perked 117.69 points to 15,199.37, the Industrial Index added 41.71 points to 3,152.60 and the Plantation Index shot up 131.22 points to 7,834.87. Among actively traded stocks, Minetech was flat at 11 sen, IFCA MSC advanced 11 sen to 82.5 sen, HSI-CJ garnered 4.5 sen to 85.5 sen, while Iris Corp and Hubline slipped half-a-sen each to 31 sen and four sen, respectively.

Main Market volume dwindled to 1.05 billion shares worth RM1.64 billion from yesterday's 1.07 billion shares worth RM1.88 billion. Turnover on the ACE Market expanded to 376.30 million shares valued at RM121.23 million from 271.95 million shares valued at RM54.14 million previously. Warrants shrank to 170.00 million units worth RM71.22 million from 260.92 million units worth RM99.57 million on Wednesday.

Consumer products accounted for 61.02 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (278.02 million), construction (38.44 million), trade and services (420.18 million), technology (63.30 million), infrastructure (18.34 million), SPAC (16.72 million), finance (52.90 million), hotels (4.79 million), properties (84.00 million), plantations (11.07 million), mining (2,100), REITs (6.46 million), and closed/fund (8,000). -- BERNAMA