KUALA LUMPUR (March 20): LBI Capital Bhd's shares rose as much as 12.3% to hit an intraday high of RM1.19 in early trade. The stock was among the top gainers on Bursa Malaysia today.

At 4.40pm, the stock was up 11 sen or 10.38% at RM1.17, with 399,800 shares done. Its market capitalisation stood at RM86.49 million.

Filings on March 15 and 16 showed that the company's directors, namely its managing director Datuk Ng Chin Heng, his spouse Datin Low Wee Chin and son Raymond Ng Yew Foong and person connected Datin Chan Lai Har have been acquiring LBI shares through their private vehicle Ng Tiong Seng Corp Sdn Bhd. As at March 16, 2018, Ng Tiong Seng Corp and persons acting in concert have a 56.11% stake in LBI.

SJ Securities Sdn Bhd senior remisier Goh Kay Chong told theedgemarkets.com that a sudden influx of funds to the stock may also be due to the group’s recently announced results, which saw its fourth-quarter net profit surge more than ten-fold compared with a year ago on higher fair value gains from investment properties.

For the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2017 (4QFY17), the group’s net profit jumped to RM4.75 million compared with RM438,000 in 4QFY16, while revenue rose 58% to RM3.15 million from RM1.99 million a year ago.

Goh said buying impetus on institutional investors may have been provided from comments in the quarterly report, which stated that the board expects performance in the coming year to be better than last year.

This is especially with the launch of new projects in the current year which is expected to perform well despite a soft property market, he added.

For the full FY17, LBI Capital's net profit fell 79% to RM4.62 million from RM21.57 million in FY16, while revenue dropped 46% to RM14.76 million from RM27.27 million.