KUALA LUMPUR (June 14): Bursa Malaysia on Friday asked PIE Industrial Bhd (KL:PIE) to explain the unusual market activity after shares of the electronics manufacturing services firm hit a new all-time high since its listing in 2000.
Shares of PIE Industrial surged as much as 18% or RM1.09 to an all-time high of RM7.28 during Friday's morning trade session. At 3.12pm, the stock was still up 92 sen or 15% at RM7.11, valuing the company at RM2.73 billion. Trading volume stood at 2.28 million shares, almost triple its four-week average.
In a bourse filing on Friday, Bursa Malaysia asked PIE Industrial if there was any corporate development that had not been announced, or whether there was any rumour, report or other possible explanation that may account for the trading activity.
Bursa Malaysia also advised investors to watch for PIE Industrial’s response.
PIE Industrial is 51.42%-owned by Taiwan’s Pan International Industrial Corp, which in turn is 27.33%-held by iPhone assembler Foxconn, more formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd.
There are two research houses covering PIE Industrial; both of them, Kenanga Investment Bank and Affin Hwang Investment Bank, have 'buy' calls for the stock, according to Bloomberg. PIE Industrial’s current price exceeded the consensus 12-month target price of RM6.75.
PIE Industrial's net profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2024 (1QFY2024) came down by 31.2% to RM9.70 million from RM14.11 million in the previous year's corresponding quarter, mainly attributable to lower revenue and lower gain from foreign exchange transactions.
Quarterly revenue dropped 28.1% to RM239.18 million from RM332.45 million previously, mainly due to lower demand from existing customers for electronic manufacturing services, raw wire and cables.
The group previously announced a special interim single tier dividend of two sen per share and an interim single tier dividend of five sen per share, with an ex-date on May 30, and to be paid on June 20.