KUALA LUMPUR (June 10): CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, the second largest lender in the country, rose as much as 3.44% or 18 sen to RM5.42 today, on what may be due to a technical rebound, according to a fund manager here.

As at 3.41pm, the stock erased some of its gains to trade at RM5.36, still up 12 sen or 2.29%, with 6.17 million shares done, giving it a market capitalisation of RM45.5 billion.

When contacted, Phillip Capital fund manager Ang Kok Heng said it may be due to technical rebound, as the stock had fallen by 29% from RM7.38 on Aug 29, 2014.

“It could be technical rebound, among other things,” he said briefly when contacted by theedgemarkets.com.

Today, CIMB’s (fundamental: 1.05; valuation: 2.25) second largest shareholder Employees Provident Fund has accumulated some 6.546 million shares via various transactions, filing with Bursa Malaysia showed.

The series of purchase has strengthened the EPF’s stake in the lender to 17.4% from 15.6% as at Feb 13.

As at March 31, CIMB’s total asset stood at RM438.284 billion. The group is the fifth largest banking group in Asean, with some 40,000 staffs.

(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.)