KUALA LUMPUR (Apr 30): Officials of Kinsteel Bhd and its 31.25%-owned associate Perwaja Holdings Bhd said they were not aware of reasons behind both companies' share price increase in active trade today.

Kinsteel (fundamental: 0; valuation: 0.9) jumped as much as two sen or 15% to 15.5 sen while Perwaja (fundamental: 0; valuation: 0) leapt as much as 6.5 sen or 52% to 19 sen.

Both stocks pared gains at 12.30pm market break. Perwaja and Kinsteel settled at 17 sen and 15 sen respectively.

Perwaja, the fifth most-active stock on the exchange, saw some 19 million shares done. Kinsteel, the sixth most-active entity, saw about 18 million units transacted.

“I have no idea (on the share price, volume surge),” a company official told theedgemarkets.com today.

The Edge Malaysia business and investment weekly (Edge Weekly), in its April 6 - 12 issue, reported that Perwaja might rope in China-based alloy manufacturer Zhiyuan Investment Group Co Ltd as a major shareholder in a move to rejuvenate Perwaja's financials.

Edge Weekly reported that Kinsteel was in talks with Zhiyuan on a proposed placement of Perwaja shares to Zhiyuan.

Edge Weekly quoted Kinsteel managing director Tan Sri Pheng Yin Huah as saying: “We need a professional partner who can bring operational changes to Perwaja. We are still in discussion on the share placement. If Zhiyuan emerges as the largest shareholder, it is actually good for Kinsteel.”

“One thing is for sure, we (Kinsteel) will stay on in Perwaja. But it doesn’t really matter who will eventually control Perwaja. For us, it is more important to bring in a new investor who can revive the Kemaman plant,” Pheng said.

(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.)