Shanghai crude oil futures close higher

SHANGHAI, March 21 (Xinhua)-- crude Oil futures closed higher on Thursday at the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE).

The most active crude Oil contract for May delivery jumped 8.6 yuan (1.29 U.S. dollars) to close at 463.9 yuan a barrel, marking the highest in the past four months.

On Thursday, the total trading volume for 14 listed crude Oil futures contracts on the exchange was 316,322 lots, with a combined turnover of 145.32 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.