KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 12): Shares in KKB Engineering Bhd rose as much as 6 sen or 6.82% today to 94 sen after the group reported a net profit of RM5.34 million in its fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2017 (4QFY17), compared to a net loss of RM4.06 million a year ago.

As at 9.47am, the counter pared some gains to trade up 5 sen or 5.68% at 93 sen on thin trades of 42,000 shares.

This put KKB Engineering among the top 30 gainers on Bursa Malaysia and gave it a market capitalisation of RM240 million.

In a filing with the bourse last Friday (Feb 9), KKB said quarterly revenue had jumped 2.7 times to RM70.17 million on the back of higher contribution from its civil construction and steel pipe manufacturing divisions.

The group had also declared a first and final single tier dividend of 2 sen per share in respect of its 2017 financial year, which was a positive surprise, according to PublicInvest Research.

In a note today, the research house said KKB Engineering's performance in 4QFY17 was better than expected mainly due to improved results from subcontract works for fabrication of wellhead platforms and improved performance of its associate company.

While it lifted FY18 and FY19 earnings by 11% and 5% respectively due to changes to billing assumptions, PublicInvest Research maintained its neutral call on the stock with a fair value of 95 sen.