KUALA LUMPUR (July 28): Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd (MPI) gained as much as 29 sen or 4.5% to RM6.80 after an analyst report highlighted the recent weakness in the company’s share price as an opportunity to accumulate.

At 3.20pm, the counter has pared some gains and was trading at RM6.73, still up 22 sen or 3.4%, with 597,000 shares done. Its current price gives it a market capitalisation of RM1.34 billion.

In a note today, Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd maintained its "outperform" rating on MPI (fundamental: 1.8; valuation: 2.0) with an unchanged target price of RM8.90, and said the company’s weakened share price was a good opportunity for investors to accumulate the stock.

The research house said it was positive on MPI’s strategies that focus on high growth and defensive segments, product portfolio restructuring towards higher margin products and competitive positioning with products and manufacturing standards differentiation.

“Besides its technical edge and strategic product exposures that augur well for the current and upcoming for tech wave, we also like the management’s foresight in embracing various tech-cycles.

“We view its share price weakness as a good opportunity for accumulation,” added Kenanga.

(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.)