KUALA LUMPUR (Mar 17): Shares of Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd rose as much as 3 sen or 1.16% to a high of RM2.63 this morning on the third extension of its conditional sale and purchase agreement (SPA) with Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Air Selangor).

The company announced yesterday that the disposal of its water assets to Air Selangor had been extended for a third time by another month to April 9, 2015, and that it had agreed to an extension to enable pending issues related to the water asset transfer to be resolved by the Selangor government and the federal government.

Puncak Niaga had also expressed concern that the delay in the disposal of its water assets and consolidation of the Selangor water industry would affect the level of services and management of water supply in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.

In a note today, AmResearch maintained its "hold" call on the stock with a fair value of RM2.86, saying it believes an amicable solution could still be struck between the state government and federal government.

“We opine that both parties need to reach an amicable solution soon as any further delays in the water deal would jeopardise sustainability of water supply in the state, [thus]we maintain our hold call [on Puncak Niaga],”said AmResearch.

At 10.33 am, Puncak Niaga (fundamental:1.9; valuation: 2.4) erased 4 sen, or 1.52%, of its gains to fall to RM2.59 with 243,000 shares changing hands.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)