KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 21): Shares of Dagang Nexchange Bhd (DNeX) continue to march higher this morning, hitting a high of 40.5 sen — the highest in nearly nine years.

The impressive jump in the company's profit added fuel to the share price rally. The stock opened at 40 sen, higher than yesterday's closing at 37.5 sen. Its trading volume swelled above 95 million shares in the first trading hour.

As at 11am, the stock retreated slightly from the day's high to 38 sen, up five sen or 1.33% from yesterday's closing, with 164.7 million shares changing hands.

In a bourse filing yesterday, DNeX reported that its net profit surged over eight times to RM30.62 million or 1.77 sen per share in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2016 (4QFY16) from RM3.79 million or 0.49 sen per share a year ago, driven by the contribution from its 30%-owned associate Ping Petroleum Ltd.

Revenue more than doubled to RM67.31 million in 4QFY16 from RM27.91 million in 4QFY15.

The group also declared a second interim dividend of 0.5 sen per share, payable on Feb 28.

DNeX said the increased revenue was mainly contributed by partial revenue recognition on the Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) and Road Charges (RC) contract of RM17.1 million, as well as revenue contribution from its newly acquired subsidiaries — OGPC Sdn Bhd and OGPC O&G Sdn Bhd.

"The recent success in securing two mini bids under the Petronas Carigali [Sdn Bhd] umbrella contract, by the group's directional drilling unit, has further opened up a new revenue stream to the group's energy business on top of the revenue from OGPC Group," it added.