Hot Stock Petronas Gas rises 2% on profit, dividend

by **Cals** Fri 23 Aug 2013, 10:29

Hot Stock Petronas Gas rises 2% on profit, dividend
Business & Markets 2013
Written by Chong Jin Hun of theedgemalaysia.com
Friday, 23 August 2013 10:17

KUALA LUMPUR (August 23): Top gainer PETRONAS GAS BHD [] rose as much as 2% before erasing gains after the firm reported that second quarter profit more than doubled from a year earlier. Investors had also chased the stock for its dividend.

At 10.01am, Petronas Gas fell to RM20 with some 62,000 shares done after rising as much as 40 sen to RM20.48 earlier.

HwangDBS Vickers Research Sdn Bhd analyst June Ng wrote in a note today the firm is maintaining its "buy" call for Petronas Gas shares with a target price of RM22.20.

Yesterday ,Petronas Gas said net profit jumped 106% to RM944.94 million in the quarter ended June 30, 2013 (2QFY13) from RM458.87 million. Revenue climbed to RM930.77 million from RM887.36 million. Profit had risen mainly on deferred tax assets for its liquified natural gas (LNG) regasification terminal in Melaka.

Cumulative six-month net profit was higher at RM1.31 billion compared to RM792.32 million a year earlier. Revenue rose to RM1.84 billion from RM1.8 billion. The firm plans to pay a dividend of 15 sen a share for the quarter in review.

Ng said excluding the tax assets, Petronas Gas' 1HFY13 core earnings of RM714 million accounts for about 46% of the research firm's and market estimates.

The numbers came in within expectations, Ng said. "We expect stronger earnings from this year onwards, led by maiden contribution from the regas plant in 2HFY13 and Sabah power plant in FY14, the analyst said.