KUALA LUMPUR (June 19): Shares in Prestariang Bhd, in the midst of a court battle with the government over the cancellation of the National Immigration Control System (SKIN) concession, rose as much as 20% to hit a one-year intraday high of 59 sen in the morning session today, following fresh buying interest based on technical reasons.
At the noon break, Prestariang shares had pared some gains to settle at 57.5 sen, up 18.56% or nine sen, valuing it at RM270.09 million.
In terms of volume, the counter was the top most active stock on the local bourse, with 233.59 million shares done in early trade, exceeding its 200-day average daily trading volume of 11.85 million shares.
Year to date, the counter is up 38%.
According to SJ Securities Sdn Bhd senior remisier KC Goh, investors were buying the stock based on technical reasons.
“Because of the technical buy signal, investors and fund managers have been buying Prestariang's stock for the past few days and so, its share price has been moving. Today, it went up to 59 sen.
"Some are starting to take profit, because it is [the] top volume [stock today] so it attracts a lot of new investors to jump in, hoping it [can] go up further," he told theedgemarkets.com.
"Investors should monitor the fund movement. If funds continue to buy then it should move up further. Otherwise, it will drop back because of profit taking,” Goh added.
The counter has seen greater interest from investors this week as highlighted by AbsolutelyStocks twice on its list of stocks with momentum. The first time was on Monday and the second on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the stock rose by as much as 75% to 57 sen as trading volume swelled.
On June 10, the Court of Appeal fixed July 1 for the High Court to hear the company's RM733 million suit against the government.
In its decision, the Court of Appeal rejected the government’s attempt to have the suit converted into a writ, from an originating summons, as technically an originating summons is a faster and simpler way of resolving disputes due to it being based on affidavits filed.
Prestariang initially launched the suit to claim RM733 million from the government in 2019 following the termination of the SKIN project.
The project – worth RM3.5 billion – was awarded to Prestariang in August 2017 and involved a 15-year concession to design and maintain a new immigration and border control system.
The suit was filed after both Prestariang and the government failed to reach an agreement over the quantum earmarked to be paid by the government as compensation for SKIN’s cancellation.