PETALING JAYA: Harvest Court Industries Bhd’s shares sailed north, gaining 33 sen close at RM1.41, its highest level since mid-November after market regulator Bursa Malaysia lifted its designation status yesterday.

The company’s stock was among the top gainers yesterday with 5.27 million shares changing hands.

Its call warrant, Harvest-WA, also shot up yesterday to RM1.14, 31 sen higher from last Friday’s close, with 44.64 million warrants traded.

Harvest Court’s securities were put under designation status by Bursa Malaysia effective Nov 16, 2011 due to excessive speculative trading in its shares and warrants.

“In the discharge of its frontline regulatory role, the exchange will continue to monitor the trading activities of Harvest and Harvest-WA, and where trading concerns are noted, the exchange may take appropriate regulatory actions,” Bursa said in a statement last Friday.

Much of the exuberance in Harvest Court’s shares stemmed from the emergence of Mohd Nazifuddin Najib, son of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and his business partner Datuk Raymond Chan Boon Siew, as directors and shareholders in the ailing company at end-October.

However, Nazifuddin resigned from the board a month later, while Chan remains a director and holds a 15.7% stake in the company.

Despite the rally yesterday, Harvest Court’s share price is still some 34% lower than the 52-week high of RM2.13 on Nov 14, 2011.

Prior to the run-up last October, Harvest Court’s shares were trading at below 10 sen.  

Since Oct 14, 2011, Harvest Court’s share price has increased by 1,558% to yesterday’s close, and is much higher than its net asset per share of 17.5 sen as at Sept 30, 2011.

The company reported losses of RM957,000 during the nine-month period ended Sept 30, 2011.

This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, January 10, 2012.