KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 18): Shares of Jentayu Sustainables Bhd, Mercury Securities Bhd and Artroniq Bhd, which hit limit-down on Wednesday, nosedived again on Thursday, as selling pressure that hit several counters this week continued to move to other small-cap companies in the market.
Jentayu, which hit limit-down at RM1.14 on Wednesday, opened lower at RM1.08 before declining to another limit-down of 29.8%, or a drop of 34 sen, to 80 sen as at noon market break. The counter has declined 38.5% year to date.
Mercury Securities Bhd, which also hit its limit-down on Wednesday at 45.5 sen, tumbled further to as low as 37 sen before rebounding slightly to 40.5 sen — still down 10.99% or five sen at noon market break.
The counter, which just hit an all-time high of 88.5 sen on Monday, has shed all of its gains and declined by 42.9% year to date.
Artroniq shares opened at a limit-down of 19.5 sen, down 30 sen or 60.6% from its last close of 49.5 sen. At noon market break, the counter is still down 27 sen or 54.55% at 22.5 sen.
Meanwhile, three counters — Sarawak Consolidated Industries Bhd, YNH Property Bhd and Rapid Synergy Bhd — that also hit limit-down on Wednesday traded unchanged in the morning session, due to Bursa Malaysia freezing the lower limit share prices.
The freeze was due to the counters trading at static limit down prices for two consecutive days, Bursa told the stock exchange on Wednesday.
Trading volume in SCIB and Rapid have subsided to just 2% and 10% of their respective two-month average daily trading volume, with YNH still seeing some sell-off as trading volume hit 1.7 million shares Thursday morning, versus its daily average of 1.27 million shares.
SCIB has declined 42%, YNH 71% and Rapid 86% since the start of the year.
It is worth noting that YNH Property and Rapid Synergy share a common substantial shareholder in Datuk Dr Yu Kuan Chon.
Another Yu-linked counter, Imaspro Corp Bhd, recouped some losses on Thursday, trading up seven sen or 5.69% at RM1.30 as of noon market break. Nonetheless, the counter is still down 66% this year.
Selling also slowed in several hard-hit counters this week, including Leform Bhd, which received an unusual market activity (UMA) query this week (down one sen to 17 sen; still down 61% year to date) and Mestron Holdings Bhd, whose intra-day short-selling was suspended on Wednesday (down one sen to 30.5 sen, still down 30% year to date).
APB Resources Bhd, whose IDSS was also suspended on Wednesday, fell by another 30 sen to RM1.75 Thursday morning before rebounding to RM1.96, still down nine sen or 4.39%. The counter is still down 24% this year.
Meanwhile, selling has spread to Tanco Holdings Bhd, another counter which has rallied through 2022-2023.
Shares of the company, which has a port project in Melaka, fell as much as 25 sen before recovering some losses to close at 46 sen at noon market break, still down 19.5 sen or 29.77%. Subsequently, its IDSS was also suspended by Bursa.
Separately, Widad Group Bhd hit limit-down in morning trade and fell 25.5 sen or 52.04% to 23.5 sen per share at noon market break. The company has also received an UMA query from Bursa.
At noon market break, the FBM KLCI is down 0.75%, while the FBM Small Cap Index (tracking Main Market companies outside of the top 100 by market capitalisation) fell by 2.77%. The FBM ACE Index, meanwhile, fell by a wider margin of 5.69%.