KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 23): Shares of Petron Malaysia Refining & Marketing Bhd surged 18.79% this morning after it posted a near seven-fold rise in net profit to RM112.62 million in 4QFY16, from RM16.24 million a year earlier, on growth in sales volume and higher margin.

At 9.28am, Petron jumped 87 sen to RM5.50 with 1.14 million shares traded.

Revenue rose 22% to RM2.29 billion, from RM1.88 billion in 4QFY15, while sales volumes increased by one million barrels to 8.3 million barrels, when compared with 4QFY15.

In FY16, Petron’s net profit grew 7.68% to RM237.6 million, from RM220.6 million in FY15, the highest profit since its entry into Malaysia five years ago, it said. Revenue, however, fell 6.75% to RM7.6 billion, from RM8.15 billion.