Hot Stock Censof shares, volume rise after 1Q results

by **Cals** Tue 02 Sep 2014, 20:46

Hot Stock Censof shares, volume rise after 1Q results

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Kamarul Anwar of theedgemalaysia.com

Tuesday, 02 September 2014 15:46

KUALA LUMPUR (Sep 2): Shares of information and communications technology player Censof Holdings Bhd extended gains today to return to January levels, rising by as much as four sen or 7.69% as trading volume surged nearly nine-fold from its one-year average.

At 3:07 pm, Censof’s counter was traded 3.5 sen higher at 55.5 sen with 50.58 million shares done.

When contacted, Censof’s former Managing Director and current Non-Executive Director Datuk Samsul Husin told theedgemalaysia.com that the counter had been seeing interest after reporting a 217.25% jump in net profit for the first quarter ended Jun 30, 2014 (1QFY15).

“Apart from my re-designation (from managing director to non-executive director), we have also reported a big boost in our earnings,” Samsul said over the telephone.

Censof’s 1QFY15 net profit was RM1.71 million against the previous corresponding quarter’s RM539,000. The sudden surge arose from the consolidated earnings of its new acquisition, Dagang Nexchange Bhd, in the quarter.

The counter, which had an average trading volume of some 4.65 million for the past year, began to rise after Jun 25, the first trading day after Censof announced its latest quarterly results. On that day, the shares closed at 47.5 sen, thus gaining eight sen or 16.84% in just a week.

Apart from that, Censof’s Managing Director Ameer Shaik Mydin was also quoted by a local daily yesterday as saying, the company was looking to diversify its client base, predominantly made up of government agencies, to include the private sector. The Edge already reported this last December in an exclusive interview with Censof’s Executive Director Tamil Selvan Durairaj and Ameer.

Be that as it may, expanding its offering to a broader client base would be a major boost for Censof, given that the company provides accounting software for businesses. With the impending goods and services tax (GST) set to replace the sales and service tax next April, many industry executives have said that accounting software providers are surely going to benefit from the change in the tax system.

There are over 300,000 companies that are required by the Royal Malaysian Customs Department to upgrade their accounting software, industry players said.