KUALA LUMPUR (May 21): Bermaz Auto Bhd rose 4.13% early this morning, albeit on thin trade, after it was reported that the automotive segment looks set to be the first to benefit from the new Pakatan Harapan government’s plan to abolish the goods and services tax (GST), which is expected to boost consumers’ buying sentiment.

At 9.09am, Bermaz added 9 sen to RM2.27 with 9,500 shares traded.

The Edge Financial Daily in its cover story today wrote that overall, the impact on the automotive sector will be fairly “neutral” although sales volume will be accelerated, quoting AllianceDBS Research analyst Siti Ruzanna Mohd Faruk in a note last Friday.

“Post-SST, [the] sales volume will take a dip and normalise later on,” she said, as she maintained a full-year growth forecast for total industry volume at 3%.

The “notable auto stock” in AllianceDBS’ coverage universe with a “buy” call that stands to benefit from all the measures outlined is Bermaz Auto, she added.

According to Bloomberg, Bermaz has 10 “buy” calls and two “hold” calls, with a 12-month consensus target price (TP) of RM2.52. The stock settled at RM2.18 last Friday, denoting a potential upside of 15.6%.