English World

Public Bank shares at new high on expectations of a corporate exercise

publicbanknewhighb3

PETALING JAYA: Public Bank Bhd’s shares advanced to an all-time high on Monday on expectations that the third largest lender by asset size in Malaysia could be mulling a corporate exercise, dealers said.

The counter rose 28 sen to close at RM19.28 on a volume of 1.26 million shares.

Public Bank’s shares have been on a clear uptrend since the start of 2013, gaining 19.3% year-to-date.

According to some dealers, there is talk that Public Bank, which is the only banking stock that has bucked the trend among its peers, could be considering the issuance of a bonus or rights issue.

It has been 10 years since the bank last implemented a bonus issue in June 2003.

Market analysts polled by StarBiz believe the rise of Public Bank’s shares could have more to do with year-end window-dressing activities.

“Public Bank’s shares are a core holding for many funds,” a banking analyst told StarBiz.

“It is a must-have counter in the portfolio of many institutional investors,” he explained.

Public Bank is currently the most expensive banking stock in the market.

It is being traded at a price-earnings multiple of around 16.7, compared with the industry average of 12.6, based on its last share price.

Its net profit for the nine months to September 2013 improved 6.82% to RM3.04bil against RM2.84bil for the corresponding period in the preceding year, thanks to higher net interest income, higher net fee and commission income.

Consequently, Public Bank’s earnings per share rose to 86.78 sen for the nine-month period under review compared with 81.23 sen previously.

Its revenue for the period rose 8.8% to RM11.35bil compared with RM10.43bil previously.

– THE STAR

Komen & Pendapat
Facebook
Twitter

Terbaru


!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");