SINGAPORE (June 30): Noble Group’s share price has plunged over a myriad of fears, compounded by contagion from ‘Grexit’ fears but Maybank Kim Eng does not believe the time has arrived to bottom-fish its stock.

In a report out today, Maybank’s analyst Wei Bin says he believes the concerns over the company’s earnings outlook is valid. He cites weak demand for hard commodities, the possibility of further impairments of its upstream assets, and greater conservatism in earnings recognition after recent criticism by short-sellers, as the key reasons for caution on Noble’s stock.

This is despite the fact that Noble’s stock is trading at a FY2016 P/B ratio of 0.6, near the valuation low of 0.5 during the global financial crisis of 2008-09.

But Wei says that Noble is facing greater operational challenges at the present time than during the global financial crisis.

“That said, its aggressive share buybacks could provide some support,” he writes in a June 30 report. “We now ascribe a P/B of 0.6 rather than 0.8 to reflect investors’ lower risk appetite.”

Wei has a ‘hold’ rating on the stock at a lower target price of 75 cents from 96 cents previously. For exposure to the commodities sector, he recommends Wilmar instead.

Noble is up 4.2% at 75 cents with 28.3 million shares traded.