POH HUAT, a leading furniture manufacturer, was featured as InsiderAsia’s Stock of the Day on December 19, 2014, when its share price was RM1.27. Since then, its shares have rallied, backed by a corresponding surge in daily volume traded, to an average of nearly 810,000 shares from just about 163,000 shares in the preceding six months.

Poh Huat was picked out by Stocks with Momentum on The Edge Markets (using a proprietary algorithm), on January 5, 2015 – when volume hit a high of 2.05 million shares — and again, on Wednesday.  

The build up in momentum lifted its share price to a high of RM1.72, up a whopping 35.4% from the day it was featured by InsiderAsia.

Notably, stocks in the furniture industry have been enjoying increased investor interest. Homeritz Corporation Berhad and Latitude Tree Holdings Berhad — both previously highlighted by InsiderAsia, on November 20 and October 30 — also closed at year-high prices of RM1.02 and RM4.03, respectively. This translates into gains of 23.6% and 12%, respectively, from the day they were featured. The FBM KLCI, on the other hand, has fallen quite a bit over this period. 

All three companies share a common characteristic — exposure to the unfolding US economic recovery and beneficiaries of the strengthening greenback. Export accounts for over 70% of their total sales. With the ringgit falling to a multi-year low of 3.5817 against the dollar, these stocks are attractive as a hedge against our falling currency. 

Poh Huat has consistently rewarded shareholders with dividends, paying out 5 sen per share for the most recent FYOct2014. This translates to a net yield of 2.9% based on current price of RM1.72.

The Edge Research rates Poh Huat a maximum Valuation score of 3. Its Fundamental score is 2.1 out of 3.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on January 8, 2015.