KUALA LUMPUR: Cement manufacturer Lafarge Malaysia Bhd, which saw its shares surge by as much as 30% today to hit limit up, said it has no idea what might have caused the sudden jump in its share price.

It said this in a stock exchange filing in response to Bursa Malaysia’s unusual market activity query.

Lafarge’s shares climbed by as much as 60 sen to RM2.60 when it hit limit up.

At market close, the stock pared some of its gains to close at RM2.35, still 35 sen or 17.5% higher from Wednesday’s close, which gave it a market value of about RM2 billion. The counter saw 4.27 million shares traded.

However, on a 12-month basis, the stock has declined nearly 53%.

It was reported last July that Lafarge's RM270 million contract to supply cement to the RM81-billion East Coast Rail Link had been suspended, pending a review of the project.

News have been speculating since last month that the project could be revived, albeit at a lower cost.

On Feb 27, Lafarge reported that its net loss had expanded to RM319.35 million for the year ended Dec 31, 2018 (FY18), from RM215.16 million a year ago, which it blamed on lower contribution from its cement segment due to unfavourable market conditions, and higher production cost due to lower production output and higher energy prices. Its revenue retreated 6% to RM2.12 billion from RM2.25 billion.

It also said that the corresponding year had benefitted from a one-off gain from the sale of land, while FY18’s other expenses had included an impairment of goodwill on aggregate and concrete segment, restructuring costs, loss on foreign exchange
and asset write off.