Shanghai crude oil futures close higher

SHANGHAI, March 19 (Xinhua) -- crude Oil futures closed higher on Tuesday at the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE).

The most active crude Oil contract for May delivery jumped 8.8 yuan (about 1.31 U.S. dollars) to close at 457.3 yuan a barrel.

On Tuesday, INE recorded a total of 243,100 transactions in 10 listed crude Oil futures contracts with a turnover of 111.2 billion yuan.

China launched the crude Oil futures trading on March 26 last year. It was the first futures variety on the Chinese mainland open to overseas investment.