KUALA LUMPUR (June 22): Pentamaster Corporation Bhd's shares rose as much as 5.44% after The Edge Research said the stock was set to be benefit from the strong US dollar (US$).

As at 11.36am, the stock pared down part of its gain to trade at 76.5 sen, still up three sen or 4.08%. It has earlier rose to its highest so far at 77.5 sen.

Some 7.22 million shares were traded. It has a market capitalisation of RM97.93 million.

At the time of writing, the ringgit was up 0.15% versus the US$ to trade at 3.7380 per dollar.

Pentamaster (fundamental: 2.1; valuation: 0.5), which was featured among the Stocks With Momentum today, first triggered momentum alert on February 17.

In a research note published on The Edge Financial Daily today, The Edge Research said Pentamaster's share price had risen by 42.7% to close at 73.5 sen last Friday since it triggered momentum alert.

"It is likely a beneficiary of the stronger US$. Export — mainly to China — accounted for 67.2% of its sales last year, mostly denominated in US$," the note read.

Pentamaster is mainly involved in designing, developing and manufacturing of automated equipment for the semiconductor industry.

It is understood that its earnings have been erratic over the past 5 years, with net losses in 2010 and 2012.

For 1QFY15, net profit was RM1.8 million, compared to a net loss of RM1.1 million in 1QFY14.

Revenue almost doubled to RM19.4 million, due to higher demand for its integrated manufacturing solutions.

According to The Edge Research, the stock was currently trading at 13.09 times of its price to earnings ratio (P/E).

(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.)