KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 26): Shares of Econpile Holdings Bhd dropped as much as 16.99% in active trade this morning after the company recorded its first quarter in the red since the group was listed in 2014.

At 12.15pm, Econpile fell 8 sen or 15.09% to 45 sen, with 75.53 million shares traded. It was the most active stock on Bursa Malaysia this morning.

Yesterday, Econpile reported a net loss of RM34.45 million in the three months ended Dec 31, 2018 (2QFY19), versus a net profit of RM22.73 million a year ago.

It said the weaker performance was due to a 30.7% jump in cost of sales to RM168.89 million from RM129.26 million, while revenue retreated 8.6% to RM148.18 million from RM162.17 million.

For the six months ended Dec 31, 2018 (1HFY19), Econpile recorded a net loss of RM19.4 million versus a net profit of RM43.92 million in the corresponding half-year period in FY18, despite revenue rising 8.3% to RM348.48 million from RM331.07 million.