KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 21): Shares of Perdana Petroleum continued its plunge on its fourth day of trading after a two-year long suspension, falling as much as 16.67% in active trade this morning.

At 11.51am, Perdana Petroleum pared some of its losses and was down 13.89% or 5 sen to 31 sen with 30.98 million shares traded.

On Tuesday, Perdana Petroleum hit its limit-down on the second day of trading, falling more than 45% to close at 36 sen.

MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd Research analyst Aaron Tan told theedgemarkets.com that the fall in the share price was because of market's expectation that the company is due to make massive losses for 2017, its third loss-making year in a row since 2015.

However, he expects Perdana Petroleum could possibly stage a turnaround in 2018 due to the positive outlook on offshore activities next year as pointed out in the Petronas Activity Outlook 2018-2020.

"Perdana Petroleum's vessel utilisation rate is expected to hit more than 70% next year, owing to a maintenance, construction and modification (MCM) services contract won by Dayang Enterprise Holdings Bhd from Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd," he said, noting that Dayang owns a 60.48% stake in Perdana Petroleum.

"Perdana Petroleum is reliant on Dayang, and with Dayang's current orderbook worth about RM3.4 billion that could last them until 2022, I expect Perdana to post commendable earnings result in 2018; better than the loss made in the past three years," he added.