Malaysia's trade surplus in October rose 37.8 percent to RM10.50 billion from RM7.62 billion ringgit in September, the government said today.

The October figure was up 31.5 percent from a year earlier, marking the 96th consecutive monthly surplus since November 1997, it said in a statement.

Exports in October rose 4.1 percent month-on-month to RM49.63 billion and were also up 12.4 percent from a year earlier.

Asean (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations), the US, the European Union, Japan, China and Hong Kong were the country's major export markets, taking a combined 79.1 percent of Malaysia's total exports in October.

For the 10 months to October, total exports grew 10.7 percent to RM440.8 billion with imports up 8.8 percent t0 359.12 billion ringgit, resulting in a trade surplus of RM81.69 billion.