KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 24): Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd (CMSB), whose share price jumped as much as 6.8% earlier this morning, making it one of Bursa Malaysia's top gainers and most actives, says it is business as usual at the company, with nothing new to report.

“CMSB has always been an actively-traded counter with periods of spikes, followed by periods of normalisation," a CMSB spokesperson said when contacted by theedgemarkets.com about the company's share price performance.

"If you look just at the last one-month or so, we saw a spike on Sept 27, which was followed by a period of normalisation. On Oct 14, there was a spike, followed by a period of normalisation; [on] Friday, the 18th, again there was a spike, followed by a period of normalisation," the spokesperson said.

"We expect that today will be no different, a spike in early trade, followed by a period of normalisation. The constant interest in CMSB is a positive sign,” the spokesperson said.

CMSB, a property development and construction player that is also involved in the cement business, saw its share price trend downwards from RM2.69 at the start of the year to touch a low of RM2.26 on Sept 17 — down 16% — before rebounding to as high as RM2.74 on Oct 1. It then retreated to a low of RM2.36 on Oct 10, before rising to RM2.43 on Oct 14, followed by a dip to RM2.37 on Oct 17, only to climb 4.7% a day later to RM2.47.

Earlier today, CMSB's shares jumped as much as 16 sen to touch RM2.52, before paring some gains to trade at RM2.41 as at 4.24pm, still up 5 sen or 2.1%. At the current price, the stock has a market capitalisation of RM2.62 billion. On a year-to-date basis, CMSB is down about 10%.

At end-August, Maybank Investment Bank Research kept a 'hold' call on the stock and cut its target price to RM2.55 from RM3.30, after noting CMSB's second quarter core earnings had come in below it and consensus estimates due to weakness in the cement, construction and road maintenance divisions. It also slashed its forecast FY19-FY21 core net profit by 25%-32%, following the weaker-than-expected 2Q earnings.

At the same time, MIDF Research kept a 'buy' on CMSB with an unchanged target price of RM3.12, saying CMSB is backed by a robust value chain structure and is well-positioned as a key beneficiary to Sarawak's growing developments.

"The plethora of projects awaiting implementation is signs of positive trend which could benefit local contractors such as CMSB. On that account, the group is already in the sweet spot to undertake large-scale projects, given its track record, experience and locality presence. Despite the sluggish earnings seen in 1HFY19, we remain optimistic on its outlook in the long-term," MIDF Research said in a note dated Aug 29.

CMSB has always been a company built on strong fundamentals and with a robust business plan that focuses on its key and core industries, the company spokesperson added. "This robustness will always attract interest from investors, as they look to create solid portfolios."