KUALA LUMPUR (April 15): SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd and Perisai Petroleum Teknologi Bhd jumped as much as 7% each on news that crude oil prices rose on signs of a dip in US production.

SapuraKencana (fundamental: 1.3; valuation: 1.4) gained as much 17 sen to RM2.56, while Perisai (fundamental: 0.45; valuation: 1.4) rose as much as 3.5 sen to 57 sen.

At 3:14pm, SapuraKencana pared gains at RM2.56 with some 18 million shares changing hands, making the stock the fifth-largest gainer across the bourse.

Perisai, the second most-active stock, saw some 64 milion shares changed hands

Reuters reported today that oil prices rose after signs of a dip in U.S. production, but gains were capped by Chinese quarterly growth slowing to a six-year low.

Front-month Brent crude futures were trading up 47 cents at $58.90 a barrel by 0310 GMT, while U.S. crude was up 28 cents at $53.57," it said.

In the United States, North Dakota's February oil production fell 15,000 barrels per day (bpd) versus January, although the number of producing wells hit a record high, it noted.

This followed a U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) report, forecasting U.S. shale production would fall by 45,000 bpd to 4.98 million bpd in May, which would be the first monthly decline in four years, it added.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company's profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)