KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia was broadly higher in early Monday trade, with consumer stocks staging a recovery while overall market sentiment was more positive about the government’s latest restricted measures to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
At 9.10am, the KLCI was up 5.46 points or 0.35% to 1,567.63. Turnover was 452.61 million shares valued at RM210.61mil. There were 401 gainer, 132 losers and 267 counters unchanged.
Reuters reported Asian shares got off to a cautious start as investors anxiously awaited a key read on US inflation this week for guidance on monetary policy, while Bitcoin took a hammering after China cracked down on mining and trading of the cryptocurrency.
Earnings per share was 7.1 sen as compared to 10.18 sen in the year-ago quarter.
Group revenue for the quarter under review was RM536.58mil, a 6% drop from RM569mil in the comparative quarter.
Genting Plantations said in a statement that its downstream manufacturing recorded an Lbitda of RM5.9mil as compared to Ebitda of RM14.1mil in the previous corresponding quarter. The outlook for the Downstream Manufacturing segment for the rest of this year will remain challenging due to the unfavourable palm oil-gas oil (POGO) spread and squeezed margins for its products. Nevertheless, the demand for refined palm products is expected to be sustained given its competitive pricing vis-à-vis other substitute soft oils, it said.
05 Apr 2021 / 09:31 H.
PETALING JAYA: Although corporate earnings for Q4’20 delivered better-than-expected results, CGS-CIMB has cautioned on potential earnings risks in the second half of the year due to concerns over political stability.
It lowered its end-2021 FBM KLCI target to 1,699 points from 1,759 points to reflect the potential risks, as it price the market at 1.0 standard deviation discount to mean P/E.
Of the 130 companies that the research house tracked during this latest results season, the ratio of companies that posted Q4’20 results above its expectation rose to 40% against 35% reported in the previous quarter while the number of underperformers fell to 25% from 31% reported previously.
EIGHT of Malaysia’s top 10 richest tycoons based on Forbes’ 2020 billionaires list earned a whopping RM1.99 billion worth of dividends from the recently announced financial results for the quarter ended Dec 31, 2020, according to their known shareholdings in Bursa Malaysia-listed firms.
Among them, Public Bank Bhd founder Tan Sri Dr Teh Hong Piow is expected to receive the biggest dividend payout totalling RM668.18 million from his shareholdings in the bank and insurer LPI Capital Bhd.
Public Bank, the third-largest banking group in the country by asset size, declared an interim dividend of 13 sen (payable on March 22) for the fourth quarter of financial year 2020 (4QFY2020) ended Dec 31, 2020. Public Bank also undertook a four-for-one bonus share issue to reward shareholders last year, which enlarged the number of Public Bank’s outstanding shares to 4.2 billion.
Malaysian palm oil production to recover soon, say analysts 12 Mar 2021 / 09:30 H.
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s palm oil industry is expected to see a production recovery soon, amid a higher ouput cycle, according to Public Investment Bank Research (PIVB Research).
“The strong crude palm oil (CPO) price trend has indeed surprised the market given the persistent low inventory levels. Nevertheless, we think there will be strong resistance for CPO prices to go up further as we see a production recovery soon amid higher production cycle,” it said.
Palm oil inventories saw a surprise drop in February on the back of an unexpected production contraction while exports fell to a 14-year low, according to the research house.