KUALA LUMPUR (July 14): SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd rose as much as five sen or 2% after the firm said it secured a US$273 million (RM1.04 billion) offshore support-services contract in India. 

SapuraKencana (fundamental: 0.85; valuation: 0.8) rose to its highest so far today at RM2.46 before paring gains. At 9:57am, the stock was traded at RM2.44 with some one million shares done.

Yesterday, SapuraKencana said it had clinched the project from Oil and Natural  Gas  Corp  Ltd. SapuraKencana said the project included the supply of well head platforms, pipelines and cable.

SapuraKencana said the contract was expected to contribute positively to its earnings in financial years ending January 31, 2016 (FY16) and 2017.

Today, MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd analyst Aaron Tan Wei Min said the research firm maintained its "buy" call for SapuraKencana shares with an unchanged target price of RM3.55.

Tan wrote in a note MIDF had also retained its FY16 revenue forecast for SapuraKencana at 
RM8.1 billion. 

"SAKP’s (SapuraKencana) current orderbook stands at approximately RM25b. We expect the company to execute and recognise approximately RM8b in FY16 and the remaining in FY17 onwards. As such, our revenue target for FY16 at this juncture remains intact at RM8.1b. 

"The company’s tenderbook is approximately equal to the orderbook value. Year-to-date, the company has secured approximately RM2b worth of contracts," he said.

(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