KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd's share price rose past RM10 for the first time to a record high on Thursday (March 3) after climbing as much as 31 sen or 3.17% to RM10.08.
At market close, Petronas Chemicals had pared some of the gains to settle at RM10 — still 23 sen or 2.35% higher from Wednesday's close at RM9.77 — after 15.59 million shares changed hands.
At the latest price, Petronas Chemicals has a market capitalisation of RM80 billion, and is trading at 10.87 times its historic earnings, according to Bloomberg data. Year to date, the group has climbed RM1.26 or 14.16%.
CGS-CIMB analysts Ivy Ng Lee Fang and Nagulan Ravi said in a note on Thursday that they had added Petronas Chemicals (target price [TP]: RM10.76) as their top pick as it is a beneficiary of rising oil prices due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
Meanwhile, Kenanga Research analyst Steven Chan said on Wednesday that he sees Petronas Chemicals (TP: RM11) as one of the proxies for high oil prices after raising his 2022 average Brent crude oil price assumption to US$90 (about RM376.83) per barrel from US$65 previously.
According to the Financial Times, Brent crude oil has risen 23.37% to US$116.83 from US$94.7 since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24.
Malaysia’s Tapis crude oil rose 1.84% or US$1.91 to a record high of US$105.96 per barrel on Wednesday in tandem with surging global crude oil prices.