Hot stock Eco World falls 4% on profit taking and Tong Kooi Ong’s blog posting

by **Cals** Tue 29 Apr 2014, 22:17

Hot stock Eco World falls 4% on profit taking and Tong Kooi Ong’s blog posting

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Jonathan Gan of theedgemalaysia.com

Tuesday, 29 April 2014 12:23

KUALA LUMPUR (Apr 29): Eco World Development Group Bhd shares fell 4% this morning due to profit taking after recent hefty gains.

The bearish view of the property market, as expressed in a write-up by businessman Datuk Tong Kooi Ong in his blog, also played a part in depressing the stock.

At 11:33 am today, Eco World fell 20 sen or 4% to RM5.00 per share with some 1.5 million trades.

Yesterday, the stock hit a high of RM5.82 after the company announced last Friday a major corporate exercise that would turn it immediately into one of the top property players in the country.

Ahead of the major announcement, Eco World’s stock price had risen and hit fresh record highs.

Tong, in his popular blog closely followed by investors, said on Sunday that lower prices for property are “expected in 2014”.

“In 2014, we expect lower residential transaction volumes to continue. Historically and rationally, a fall in volume is a precursor to subsequent lower prices. Developers’ ability to raise or maintain prices will depend largely on the market demand,” he said in the post.

A dealer with a major stock broking firm told theedgemalaysia.com that Eco World’s price fall was probably due to profit taking activities and “blog sentiment” caused by Tong’s write-up.

“There is some healthy correction going on with the stock. Other than that, it was probably investor sentiments that were affected by recent blog postings,” the dealer said. “It’s possible that the rest of the investors were just following in the herd,” the dealer added.