KUALA LUMPUR (March 25): Tebrau Teguh Bhd continued to decline in active trades today after being hit by profit-taking last Friday -- for the first time this month -- following a more than 100% surge since early January, dealers said.

“When UEM Land Bhd fell last Friday, investors sensed it was time to take profit. But today, UEM Land has stabilised, I guess the fall of Tebrau will not be too much as the support of Iskandar theme is there,” said a senior dealer.

At  11.43 am , Tebrau lost 5 sen to RM1.38 after hitting a low of RM1.34, on trades of 10.6 million shares. It was the second most active stock today. On Friday, it fell 3 sen to RM1.43 on after rising unabated for past 3 weeks.

Meanwhile, UEM Land slowed down its fall to register loss of two sen to RM2.59, on trades of 1.8 million shares. On Friday, it fell by 13 sen to RM2.61, after soaring 25 sen in the previous two days.

Both Tebrau Teguh Bhd and UEM Land Bhd have been supported by a string of analyst and media reports that painted a bright and exciting outlook for Iskandar Malaysia.

“Excitement about the Iskandar Malaysia economic region is reaching levels never seen before….We remain bullish on this growth corridor in Johor and advise investors to position for the longer term,” said CIMB in a report last week.

While UEM Land is the key master developer of the economic corridor, Tebrau is seen by retail investors as a cheap proxy to the fast developments there as its parent company -- Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Sdn Bhd -- is an active player there and is heading for listing in June.

Due to its Iskandar link, Tebrau did not fall even when it was slapped by an “unusual market activity” querry last week by the stock exchange for its price surge and active trades.