KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 15): Sapura Energy Bhd is the most active stock on Bursa Malaysia today, with 95.2 million shares traded as at 2.55pm. It was unchanged at 36 sen.

Earlier, the stock gained as much as 1.5 sen to touch a high of 37.5 sen.

The group saw a sharp drop in its share price on Aug 24 to close at 41 sen, down 30% from its closing of 59 sen on Aug 23, amid its plan for a rights issue to raise up to RM3.98 billion to reduce borrowings.

The decline in its share price was largely due to the expectation of dilution, following the completion of the rights issue as some analysts downgraded their call on Sapura Energy to Sell, although they did acknowledge the exercise was necessary to lower the group’s gearing level.

The counter touched an all-time closing low of 33.5 sen on Sept 6, before rebounding to 44.5 sen on Sept 13. Since then, however, Sapura Energy’s share price continued its decline and has dipped below the 40 sen mark.

According to data compiled by Bloomberg, nine analysts held a ‘Buy’ call, eight had ‘Hold’ calls, while two analysts had ‘Sell’ calls on Sapura Energy.