KUALA LUMPUR (May 18): Dagang NeXchange Bhd (DNeX) declined 5.3% after the company posted lower net profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2015 (1QFY15), due to a one-off voluntary separation scheme (VSS) payment during the period.

At 10.36am, DNeX fell 1 sen or 3.7% to trade at 27.5 sen, with some 6.3 million shares exchanged. Earlier, the counter fell as much as 1.5 sen or 5.9% to trade at a low of 27 sen.

In an announcement on Friday, DNeX (fundamental: 2.6; valuation: 0.2) posted net profit of RM470,000 or 0.06 sen per share for 1QFY15, plunging 76% from RM1.94 million or 0.25 sen per share in 1QFY15.

It attributed the fall to a one-off expense for its staff rationalisation exercise, in a bid to improve the efficiency of its operations.

“Moving forward, the rationalisation exercise is expected to contribute positively to long-term sustainable operational efficiency for the group, in years ahead,” it said.

Meanwhile, revenue climbed 18% to RM21.99 million in 1QFY15, from RM18.60 million in 1QFY14, contributed by growth in its business-to-government (B2G) business and progress billing for the provision of professional services for the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) integrated logistic portal.

Going forward, DNeX expects to post positive results for its current financial year ending Dec 31, 2015 (FY15), leveraging on its trade facilitation business, while its energy business is poised to register its first revenue in April 2015.

According to Bloomberg data, DNeX has gained 7.84% year-to-date, outperforming the FBM KLCI’s 2.80% increase during the same period.

(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.)