KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 3): Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd, which was slapped with an unusual market activity (UMA) query by Bursa Malaysia earlier today, said it is unaware of the reasons that may have triggered the sharp fall in its share price.

The oil and gas player said save for the drilling programme offshore Australia, which it anticipates to commence drilling into the reservoir section of the well on Nov 4, and margin calls for its shares, it was not aware of any corporate development, rumour, report or any other possible explanation for the sudden fall in its share price.

In a reply to UMA query today, Hibiscus said it wishes to highlight that the company, via its subsidiary in Australia and jointly-controlled entity in Norway, is currently drilling two wells as announced on Oct 16 and Oct 26, 2015, and further updated on Nov 2, 2015 for the Australian well.

"As at the current time, there are no results of a price sensitive nature from both these wells that are available to the company.

"With regard to our drilling programme offshore Australia, we only anticipate to commence drilling into the reservoir section of the well on Nov 4, 2015 and we will make the necessary disclosures as soon as reliable results are available," it said.

Hibiscus added that it believes that there may be some shareholders who have been subject to margin calls on shares that have been collateralised and are being asked to regularise their margin positions.

Note that in a separate filing to Bursa Malaysia, the trading of Hibiscus' shares has been halted with effect from 3.09pm today (Nov 3).

"Trading in the shares will resume with effect from 4.09pm, Tuesday, Nov 3, 2015," the statement read.

Hibiscus fell as much as 26 sen or 50% to 25.5 sen. The stock pared losses at 36 sen for a market capitalisation of RM353.09 million before the trading was suspended. Hibiscus saw some 261.5 million shares transacted and it is the top loser and the most active stock on local bourse.

Fund managers had earlier told theedgemarkets.com that there were margin calls on Hibiscus shares. Margin calls happen when stock broking firms sell shares in their clients' accounts to recover the money loaned to them to buy shares.

(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.)