Tag: bursa

  • Axiata slides 5% in early morning trade on tax bill

    Axiata slides 5% in early morning trade on tax bill

    Axiata Group Bhd saw some selling pressure in early morning trade on news that it had been hit with a capital gains tax bill of RM2.16bil by the Nepalese Supreme Court. The stock lost as much as 20 sen or 5.1% in early morning trading on Friday to a low of RM3.70. At 9.30am, the counter was down 14 sen or 3.59% to RM3.76 a share on the back of 1.57 million shares traded.

    Analysts said the news report by the Himalayan Times yesterday came as a negative surprise, which may impact the group’s FY19E earnings forecasts.

    Kenanga research made no changes to its FY18-19E earnings forecast pending its upcoming 4Q18 results but lowered its target price to RM4.50 from RM4.60 previously.

    “All in, we are keeping our Outperform call for now in view of its relatively decent valuation (Forward EV/EBITDA of 7.2x vs. peers of 12-13x) coupled with a stronger Celcom and earnings recovery at XL.

    “Bargain-hunting opportunity could potentially arise on any share price weakness due to the recent hiccup. We advocate investors to start accumulating the share at c.RM3.70 level,” it said.

    PublicInvest research said its core earnings forecasts remain unchanged but headline profit could see a sharp decline if Axiata paid the capital gains tax in FY19F.

    “Although our core earnings forecasts and Neutral call remain unchanged, we believe share price would react negatively to this news due to uncertainties and the potential downside to headline profit,” it said.

    It maintained its target price at RM3.85.

    In its response to news reports, Axiata said in a statement that it is yet to receive the judgment and order of the Supreme Court and is yet to receive any details of the order.

    “Ncell, Reynolds, and Axiata UK were given the full clearance by the Large Tax Payers Office of Nepal [LTPO] of its obligations to withhold any CGT payment on behalf of the Seller in relation to the Transaction via the letter from LTPO dated 4 June 2017, following the full and final payment made by Ncell, albeit under protest on the basis that CGT is not applicable on offshore transactions and even if applicable, any shortfall on payment is the responsibility of the Seller,” it said.

    The group said it would provide further updates upon receiving the order of the Supreme Court.

     

  • Foreign buying on Bursa slows to RM146.8m last week

    Foreign buying on Bursa slows to RM146.8m last week

    Foreign funds snapped up RM146.8 million net of local equities last week during the holiday-shortened week. “Foreign funds resumed their entry into stocks listed on Bursa for the fourth consecutive week albeit at a slower pace compared to the preceding week,“ MIDF Research said in its weekly fund flow report.

    It said last Monday saw a moderate net inflow of foreign funds worth RM37.3 million, extending the daily buying streak to nine days. However, this foreign buying spree came to an end on the next day as international funds sold RM12.8 million net, coinciding with the local bourse’s 0.4% slide to settle at 1,690 points.

    Risk appetite was weak on Tuesday following the overnight 2.8% slump in Brent crude oil price combined with the anticipation ahead of the Sino-US trade negotiations.

    Notwithstanding this, offshore investors returned to Bursa on Wednesday at a tune of RM65.1 million net, the highest foreign net inflow during the week.

    The catalyst responsible for the boost of foreign net inflows on that day was 0.4% increase in Brent crude oil price as US President Donald Trump’s administration slaps sanctions on Venezuela’s state-owned oil company while Saudi Arabia had a deeper output cuts in January than initially pledged.

    The momentum of foreign net inflows continued on the last trading day of the week as foreign investors bought RM57.2 million net.

    “We opine that the sentiment was partially supported by the Malaysia’s exports in 2018 which grew by 6.7% to reach almost RM1 trillion. Meanwhile, the FBM KLCI was little changed, declining by less than 1% on Thursday ahead of the long weekend and festive season.”

    The month of January 2019 saw a foreign net inflow of RM1.03 billion or US$249.3 million, the first monthly net inflow since September last year.

    “In comparison with the three other Asean markets we monitor, Malaysia has the second lowest foreign net inflow while Indonesia leads,“ said MIDF.

    Foreign investors were the only group which saw a weekly increase in average daily traded value, jumping by 21.0% to remain above RM1 billion for the second week running.

  • Bursa Malaysia’s Q4 earnings fall 6.2% to RM51.9m

    Bursa Malaysia’s Q4 earnings fall 6.2% to RM51.9m

    Bursa Malaysia Bhd’s net profit in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2018 (Q4FY18) was down by 6.2% to RM51.9 million, from RM55.27 million a year ago, mainly due to lower contribution from the securities segment.

    Revenue for the quarter declined 8.7% to RM128.9 million, compared with RM141.2 million in the previous corresponding quarter.

    The exchange has approved a second interim dividend of 11.6 sen per share for FY18, amounting to about RM93.7 million which is payable on Feb 28, 2019. With that, the total dividend (including special dividend) declared for the year amounts to 33.6 sen per share.

    Bursa’s full-year net profit was slightly up by 0.4% to RM224.04 million, from RM223.04 million a year ago, while revenue decreased by 1.2% to RM550 million, against RM556.8 million previously.

    For the year under review, securities market trading revenue increased 2.4% to RM265.8 million from RM259.6 million in FY17, mainly due to higher average daily trading value (ADV) for securities market’s on-market trades (OMT) in FY18.

    However, non-trading revenue saw a marginal decrease of 0.1% to RM165.9 million from RM166.1 million in FY17 due to lower listing and issuer services revenue.

    Bursa CEO Datuk Seri Tajuddin Atan said despite market volatility and challenging global economic environment, the exchange’s financial performance remained resilient.

    “Throughout the year, to create a more facilitative environment, we continued implementing initiatives to further enhance the vibrancy and liquidity of the market,” he added.

    At 2.35pm, Bursa’s share price was trading 7 sen or 0.9% lower at RM7.32 on 751,900 shares done.

  • Bursa slips on Wall Street, oil price slump

    Bursa slips on Wall Street, oil price slump

    Bursa Malaysia was not spared the fallout from this week’s rout on Wall Street and the slump in crude oil prices, with the FBM KLCI sliding 15.34 points to close at 1,695.37 points today. Most sectoral indices on the local bourse ended in the red today, save those for construction, healthcare, utilities and the ACE Market, and the FBM Fledgling Index.

    The selloff on Wall Street has been led by technology stocks, and the New York stock market’s gains for 2018 have been wiped out with the latest plunge on Tuesday.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 ended at their weakest since late October on Tuesday, diving 553 points or 2.2 % and 49 points or 1.8 % respectively. The technology-heavy Nasdaq declined 117 points or 1.7 %, the lowest it has hit in seven months.

    Energy stocks also took a beating after crude oil prices slumped 6.6%.

    Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd head of research Kenny Yee said that the performance of the local bourse is attributable to developments on Wall Street and the decline in crude oil prices – which will be used as the “relevant excuse” by investors to take profits given the recent climb in stock prices.

    Asked if the selling will persist, he said this will depend on Wall Street’s performance.

    Yee projects the FBM KLCI to trade around the 1,680 level, which he said is a well-supported position.

    He noted that selling could also be induced by the expected dip in third quarter corporate earnings, in which further downgrades on corporate earnings growth are expected.

    “We were deep into the tech bubble and now it is bursting. The bubble is not totally without fundamentals but prices rose too much over a long period of time. For the US, it is only starting and for Malaysia the oil price drop marked our peak. We were just trying to recover before the bursting of this bubble hit us,” explained Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd head of research Pong Teng Siew.

    “There is no cover currently. All asset classes are being hit. Bonds, stocks, commodities, properties, cryptocurrencies … all are being hit. Even gold is going nowhere,” he said.

    Asked if this will continue, Pong noted that the market does look like continuing its bearish streak in all asset classes as the tide of liquidity is flowing out at the moment.

    Sapura Energy was the most active counter on Bursa Malaysia yesterday, surging 4.17% to 37.5 sen with 87.49 million shares traded.

    Malaysian Pacific Industries was the top loser, falling 4.08% to RM11.74 on volume of 480,600 shares.

  • Bursa Malaysia to continue upward momentum next week

    Bursa Malaysia to continue upward momentum next week

    Bursa Malaysia is expected to continue its positive momentum next week, driven by a stronger ringgit, firmer oil price, strong global economic outlook, and better corporate earnings, a dealer said.

    Affin Hwang Investment Bank Vice-President/Head of Retail Research Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan said the global economic outlook is looking good so far this year, triggered by buying interest among local and foreign investors.

    “It has been a good start (for FBM KLCI) this year, with positive outlook on the local and global economy. The local benchmark index has experienced the highest fund inflows in three years, signalling investors’ confident towards our market,” he said.

    For next week, he said that the FBM KLCI would likely move between 1,800 and 1,850 points.

    “The strong oil prices have so far lent support to our market, of which about 30 per cent of companies in Bursa Malaysia are directly and indirectly involved in the oil and gas industry,” he said.

    He said that the benchmark index would also be affected by US President Donald Trump’s tax reform plan.

    As the week ended, the market was traded mostly higher, benefitting from gains in the Wall Street, as well as positive economic data from China.

    However, the European Union’s (EU) approval of draft measures to back a ban on the use of palm oil in biofuels from 2021 on Thursday has hurt the plantation and palm oil related counters as the commodity is a major export from Southeast Asia to the EU.

    On a Friday-to-Friday comparison, the FBM KLCI performed better, gaining 6.16 points to end the week at 1,828.83.

    On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index slipped 26.78 points to 13,195.82, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 2.06 points to 12,860.60, the FBM Emas Syariah Index dipped 79.87 points to 13,627.46, the FBM 70 shed 154.79 points to 16,472.37, and the FBM Ace fell 192.66 points to 6,713.12.

    On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index surged 26.07 points to 17,236.98, the Plantation Index fell 99.45 points to 8,037.87 and the Industrial Index erased 31.52 points to 3,368.02.

    Total turnover slipped to 25.35 billion units valued at RM15.97 billion from 27.14 billion units valued at RM19.11 billion in the previous week.

    Main Market volume decreased to 17.14 billion shares worth RM14.73 billion from the previous Friday’s 17.88 billion shares worth RM17.59 billion.

    Warrants turnover declined to 2.64 billion units worth RM448 million from 3.46 billion units worth at RM479.51 million previously.

    The ACE Market narrowed to 5.51 billion shares valued at RM778.77 million against the previous week’s 5.74 billion shares valued at RM1.02 billion.

  • Bursa Malaysia to push retail participation to 25%

    Bursa Malaysia to push retail participation to 25%

    Bursa Malaysia aims to boost retail investors’ participation to 25 per cent in the near term from the current 23.3 per cent with 80 programmes underway to increase financial literacy.

    Bursa Malaysia chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tajuddin Atan said only four percent out of the 853 respondents had chosen to invest in shares while the rest opted for less traditional investment tools.

    “The public should consider share investment as part of their investment portfolio and change the perception that share investments are too risky.

    “Investment in shares will help diversify portfolio with the opportunity to get higher returns compared to fixed deposit, current and savings account,” he said after launching the “What’s Your Goal” campaign to raise awareness on share investment opportunities today.

    “Besides shares, there are also other investmeny products on Bursa Malaysia like Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs), structured warrants and real estate investment trusts, which are attractive and can meet different risk appetite of investors,” he added.

    Tajuddin said ETFs did not have sales charge and have significantly lower management fee compared to other managed unit trust funds.

    “Stamp duty exemptions announced in Budget 2018 will further enhance the attractiveness of ETFs as a low cost investment product,” he added.

    As of September 27 this year, the trading average daily volume currently stands at RM572 million, 16 per cent higher that RM385 million last year.

    The campaign will run for three months from November 21 to February 2018.

  • MIDF: Foreign funds flow back to Bursa

    MIDF: Foreign funds flow back to Bursa

    Foreign tide has finally returned to Bursa Malaysia after three successive weeks of attrition, albeit only marginally.

    Foreigners turned net buyers last week despite the short trading week, according to MIDF Research in its weekly fund flow report today.

    Bursa was closed on Thursday, Friday and yesterday for the National Day, Aidul Adha festival and public holiday due to outstanding achievements by national athletes at the 2017 SEA Games.

    Last week, foreign funds acquired RM36.2 million net based on transactions in the open market, excluding off market deals. This is the lowest weekly foreign acquisition for the year.

    “We note that the six-day selling streak has snapped as global funds acquired RM7.1 million net on that day. Foreign buying momentum increased the next day by seven times to RM52.2 million net.

    “However last Wednesday, international fund managers cleared their positions ahead of the long weekend, disposing RM23.1 million net,” it explained.

    August turns out to be the first month of net outflows this year which amounted to RM241.9 million net. Nonetheless, cumulative year-to-date net infl ow still stands above the RM10 billion mark.

    Foreign participation rate was resilient for the week as foreign average daily trade value (ADTV) remains above RM800 million for the fifth week in a row.

    Retail participation, meanwhile, edged higher for the week. The retail ADTV increased by 25 per cent to RM865 million after three straight weeks being below RM700 million.