KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 27): Bursa Malaysia’s Energy Index rose as much as 21.23 points or 2.98% to 732.77 on Monday, becoming the top percentage gainer among bourse gauges, after oil prices hit three-year highs.

At closing, the index, which tracks share prices of oil and gas (O&G) related companies, settled at 723.41, still up 11.87 points or 1.67%.

KNM Group Bhd, which was the most actively traded stock, gained as much as 2.5 sen or 10.87% to 25.5 sen.

The counter had pared some gains at 24.5 sen, still up 1.5 sen or 6.52%, with 144.5 million shares traded.

Meanwhile, Bumi Armada Bhd and Perdana Petroleum Bhd both closed half a sen higher at 44.5 and 12 sen respectively.  

Reuters reported that oil pushed past its July peaks as global output disruptions forced energy companies to pull large amounts of crude out of inventories, while a shortage of natural gas in Europe pushed costs up across the continent.

At the time of writing, Brent crude oil had added US$0.98 to US$79.07 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude was US$0.90 higher at US$74.88.

"We forecast that this rally will continue, with our year-end Brent forecast of US$90/bbl versus US$80/bbl previously," Goldman Sachs analysts said in a note quoted by Reuters.

"The current global oil supply-demand deficit is larger than we expected, with the recovery in global demand from the Delta impact even faster than our above-consensus forecast," the analysts said.