KUALA LUMPUR (April 7): SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd rose four sen or 2.3% today on bargain hunting amid higher crude oil prices after the stock fell 13 sen or 7% yesterday.

Yesterday, a fund manager told theedgemarkets.com that SapuraKencana shares fell as investors could be anticipating SapuraKencana might register "impairment of assets for the next few quarters".

He said this was because SapuraKencana had bought oil and gas assets when crude oil was traded higher at about US$100 a barrel. Crude oil prices have fallen to some US$40 a barrel now.

theedgemarkets.com could not reach SapuraKencana president and group chief executive officer Tan Sri Shahril Shamsuddin for comment at the time of writing then.

Today, SapuraKencana shares were traded at RM1.81 for a market value of RM10.85 billion. The eighth most-active stock on Bursa Malaysia saw some nine million shares transacted.

Crude oil gains could also have supported SapuraKencana share gains.

Reuters reported that international Brent futures traded above US$40 per barrel in early trading and stood at US$40.07 at 0038 GMT, up 23 cents from the last close and almost 8% above lows reached earlier this week.

Front month US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were trading at US$38.09 per barrel, up 34 cents from their last close and 8% above their April lows.

US crude prices were supported by an unexpected fall in crude inventories, albeit from all-time record highs, last week as refineries continued to hike output and imports fell.

In Malaysia, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) had cut its SapuraKencana stake in recent days. According to SapuraKencana's updates to Bursa Malaysia, the EPF had sold one million shares in SapuraKencana last Friday (April 1).

After the sale, the EPF's SapuraKencana stake stood at 13.848%.

A day earlier (March 31), the EPF had disposed of 504,400 shares, according to SapuraKencana.