The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 0.2 per cent to 1,666.73 points.
The index is up 0.9 per cent this week and has nearly wiped out last week’s entire decline, according to a report in the Nikkei Asian Review (NAR).
The ringgit slipped 0.1 per cent to 4.14 against the dollar.
The NAR report said Brent crude prices rose 2 per cent on Wednesday to four-month highs, helped by a fifth straight weekly drop in US oil inventories.
Global oil prices, it said, had risen over 10 per cent in the last two weeks after the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to curb output to ease an ongoing supply glut, the first such agreement in eight years.
On the KLCI, 14 of the 30 constituents ended higher Thursday and four closed unchanged, Overall declining issues outnumbered advancing ones 402 to 355, said the NAR report.
Foreign investors bought RM68.7 million in Malaysian shares on Wednesday, according to Kenanga Research, taking inflows for the year so far to RM2.5 billion.
Genting Malaysia advanced 4.9 per cent to RM4.75, the best performer on the KLCI. AMMB Holdings rose 2 per cent to RM4.06 as bargain hunters snapped up the beaten down stock.
SapuraKencana, the nation’s biggest oil and gas services provider, rose 1.2 per cent to RM1.65, helped by the overnight rally in crude prices.
The NAR report said the company’s shares were up 5.1 per cent so far this month.
IOI Corporation, however, was the biggest loser on the KLCI after it fell 1.6 per cent to RM4.35.