Hot Stock Affin top decliner, falls 4% on weaker 1Q results

Business & Markets 2013
Written by Fatin Rasyiqah Mustaza of theedgemalaysia.com
Tuesday, 21 May 2013 11:25
A + / A - / Reset

KUALA LUMPUR (May 21): Top decliner AFFIN HOLDINGS BHD [] fell
as much as 4% in morning trade after the financial services provider
said it recorded a lower net profit for its first quarter ended March 31,
2013 (1QFY13).
At 11.02am, Affin was traded at RM4.35 with some one million shares
traded. The stock had fallen as much as 20 sen to its intraday low of
RM4.31 earlier.
The bank said yesterday it recorded a 9.1% drop in net profit to
RM150.83 million for 1QFY13 compared to RM166.03 million a year
earlier.
Revenue, however, rose to RM732.76 million from RM717.27 million.
Affin said the decrease in profit was due to lower share of results in an
associate amounting to RM19 million and lower write-back of securities
impairment of RM9.5 million.
Additionally, the group's insurance arm AXA Affin General Insurance Bhd
made a one-off adjustment of RM53.2 million on the release of
unearned premium reserve due to a change in its computation
methodology.
Analysts have revised their recommendations for Affin.
Alliance Research has downgraded Affin to a "neutral" from "buy" despite revising upward its target price for the latter.
“We rollover our valuation from FY13 to FY14 and raise our target price to RM4.78 from RM4.13. We maintain our 5%
discount on the uncertainties arising from its potential acquisition of HwangDBS.
“We are keeping our estimates unchanged, pending the forthcoming analyst briefing,” said Affin.