KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 27) Oriental Food Industries Holdings Bhd (OFI), which was issued an unusual market activity (UMA) query by Bursa Malaysia yesterday (Oct 26) on the rise in price and volume of its shares on the same date, said that the company is unaware of the reason behind the UMA.

In its reply to the UMA query today, the snack food and confectionery products manufacturer said it was not aware of any corporate development, rumour, report or any other possible explanation for the rise in its volume and share price.

Bursa asked OFI if there was any corporate development, business negotiation rumour, or report or any other possible explanation that could account for the hike in share price and volume, in the UMA query yesterday.

theedgemarkets.com reported yesterday OFI hits limit up, as investors chased food-based shares in anticipation of tax incentives for the sector under Budget 2016.

At 5pm yesterday, OFI rose 43 sen or 30% to close at its intra-day high of RM1.88, with some five million shares done. The stock was the third-largest gainer across Bursa Malaysia yesterday.

During last Friday's Budget 2016 announcement, the government proposed to extend tax incentives for food production till 2020.

Analysts said such policy augured well for food producers.

"As for tax incentive for food manufacturers, it is definitely positive for food manufacturers that are planning to expand their production capacity," Kenanga Investment Bank wrote in a note.

At noon market close today, OFI shares were traded one sen or 0.53% lower at RM1.87, with 1.25 million shares changing hands, for a market capitalisation of RM448.8 million.

(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.)