KUALA LUMPUR (April 23): Shares of Hengyuan Refining Co Bhd declined as much as 5.9%, as the stock continued trending down after hitting its all-time closing high of RM17.96 in December last year.

At 3.08pm, Hengyuan was down 49 sen or 5.9% at RM7.83, after some 2.8 million shares were exchanged. Earlier, the counter fell as much as 62 sen to its lowest so far today of RM7.70. 

At the time of writing, Hengyuan was the second top decliner on the local exchange.

Another oil refiner, Petron (M) Refining & Marketing Bhd, was also among top decliners, down 20 sen or 2.48% at RM7.87, after 187,900 shares crossed.

The decline in both counters came amid strength of crude oil prices, which broke the US$70 per barrel level in mid-April. Brent crude futures were trading at US$73.95 per barrel at press time.

In its fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2017 (4QFY17), Hengyuan’s net profit fell 12% to RM183.55 million, from RM207.81 million a year earlier, while revenue climbed 22% to RM3.09 billion, from RM2.53 billion.

Meanwhile, its unaudited net profit for FY17 surged 171% to RM909.22 million, from RM335.27 million in FY16. Its cumulative revenue jumped 38% to RM11.58 billion for the year, from RM8.37 billion.

The group attributed the surge in profit to exceptional refining margins in the third quarter of 2017, amid unplanned production outages in the global market, caused by hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and a fire incident at a large-scale European refinery.