This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on June 1, 2017

Aluminium Company of Malaysia Bhd (+ve)
SHARES in Aluminium Company of Malaysia Bhd (Alcom) (fundamental: 2.5/3, valuation: 0.9/3) gained 13 sen or 9.6% to close at RM1.48 yesterday, with a volume of 2.87 million shares traded, far exceeding its 200-day average volume of 329,498 shares.

This is the fourth time this year that the stock has triggered our momentum algorithm.

Alcom’s net profit in the fourth financial quarter ended March 31, 2017 (4QFY17) surged more than sevenfold to RM5.04 million from RM666,000 a year earlier on revenue of RM84.27 million, which was 8.5% higher compared with RM77.66 million a year ago.

The comparatively better profitability performance was largely attributable to the higher contribution generated by coated fin shipment volume, which was 15% higher.

For FY17, Alcom’s net profit saw a more than fourfold increase to RM11.69 million from RM2.57 million a year earlier.

Its FY17 revenue grew 10.3% to RM317.13 million from RM287.41 million in FY16.

At the current share price, Alcom is trading at 1.1 times its book value.