This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on May 24, 2019

GPA Holdings Bhd (-ve)
GPA Holdings Bhd (fundamental: 1.2/3, valuation: 0.3/3) made it to our Stocks with Momentum list yesterday for the eighth time this year.

The stock closed half a sen or 3.85% higher at 13.5 sen, after 6.52 million shares were done, compared with the average 341,814 shares recorded in the past 200 days.

The group manufactures automotive batteries for the domestic and export markets. It also makes rechargeable maintenance-free sealed lead acid batteries used as back-up power sources for standby and cyclical applications.

On March 6, GPA said it had ceased the trading and distribution of personal care products under its subsidiary Kenola Sdn Bhd to mitigate the negative impact and losses the sector had had on the group.

It said the business had sustained losses and was anticipated to continue incurring losses if operations were allowed to continue.

GPA said its earnings for financial year 2019 (FY19) are expected to be affected by an impairment loss and retrenchment cost to be incurred. However, it expects an improvement in its overall operating results for FY20.