KUALA LUMPUR (June 11): Shares of jewellery retail chain Poh Kong Holdings Bhd jumped 6.38% in early trade today after its net profit for the third quarter ended April 30, 2015 (3QFY15) almost doubled to RM7.93 million or 1.93 sen a share from RM4.13 million or 1.01 sen a share last year, on better net income and improvement in gross profit margin.

At 9.09am, Poh Kong rose 3 sen to 50 sen with 224,00 shares done.  

Quarterly revenue climbed 15% to RM210.35 million from RM183.12 million on the surge in demand for gold investment products and jewellery products possibly due to impending implementation of the goods and services tax (GST).

Poh Kong (fundamental: 0.95; valuation: 1.4) said the major revenue contributors are gold jewellery and gold investment products.

"Post-GST, the market demand has dampened, although we expect it will gradually normalised," it added.

For the cumulative nine months (9MFY15), Poh Kong's net profit jumped 86.08% to RM18.72 million or 4.56 sen a share against RM10.06 million or 2.45 sen a share in 9MFY14, while revenue strengthened to RM620.76 million, up 5% from RM590.16 million in a year ago.

On prospects, Poh Kong expects Malaysians to continue to be cautious in their spending and that will pose the biggest challenge to the retail industry.

“Barring unforeseen circumstances, the group is cautiously optimistic of its performance for FY15,” it added.

 (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. Go to www.theedgemarkets.com for details on a company’s financial dashboard.)