KUALA LUMPUR (May 14): Shares in Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) rose in afternoon trading on lower palm oil stockpile numbers and in response to the general election result.

At 3.27pm, the counter was up 28 sen or 17.39% at RM1.89 with 92.2 million shares traded. It was among the top actively traded stocks on Bursa Malaysia.

At the current share price, FGV has a market capitalisation of RM6.99 billion. Over the past 12 months, the counter has gained about 5.6%.

This morning, the counter had opened two sen lower at RM1.59 and fell to as low as RM1.51, before rebounding.

TA Securities plantations analyst Angeline Chin said the rise in FGV's share price came on the back of the favourable palm oil inventory figures for the month of April announced by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB).

"The stockpile numbers came in lower than the market expected. It fell 6.4% to 2.17 million tonnes, the lowest level since September, according to MPOB report while the market expectation was about 2.23 million tonnes to 2.24 million tonnes," Chin said when contacted.

She also noted that crude palm oil futures on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives were higher today.

Chin said the share price rise was also contributed by the May 9 general election result, saying investors have turned neutral after some initial sell off.

"I think the new government will try to implement a new policy to protect the welfare of the (Felda) settlers," she said.

"These two factors boosted FGV's share price. Actually there are quite a number of plantation stocks up today, such as IOI Corp Bhd and Kuala Lumpur Kepong (KLK) Bhd, not just FGV," she added.