KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 6): Plantation stocks on Bursa Malaysia were mostly up on Wednesday morning after the crude palm oil (CPO) futures market rose to an all-time high on Tuesday.

At 11.03am, Sime Darby Plantation Bhd had soared 29 sen to RM3.95, while Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd (KLK) surged RM1.26 to RM21.44 and IOI Corp Bhd increased 13 sen to RM3.90.

These counters were three of the top four biggest contributors to the rise in the FBM KLCI on Wednesday morning.

As for other plantation counters, PPB Group Bhd and Hap Seng Plantations Holdings Bhd gained two sen each to RM18.42 and RM2.05 respectively, FGV Holdings Bhd added one sen to RM1.40, Genting Plantations Bhd picked up 2.5 sen to RM7.15, TH Plantations Bhd earned 1.5 sen to 61.5 sen and Sawarak Plantation Bhd improved seven sen to RM2.47.

The Plantation Index surged 251.75 points to 6,655.99.

The benchmark CPO futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives reached RM5,000 per tonne for the first time ever on Tuesday, closing at an all-time high of RM4,738 a tonne.

The better performance was mainly driven by tight supplies and strong demand from China as the country is expected to increase its intake of palm oil for biofuel in light of its ongoing energy supply crisis.