KUALA LUMPUR: Sumatec Resources rose as much as 6% in morning trades, following its largest shareholder Tan Sri Halim Saad upping his stake to 23.17% last Friday.

At the 12:30 pm lunch break, Sumatec was 0.5 sen or 2% higher at 25.5 sen with 222.3 million shares done. Earlier, the stock opened at a high of 26.5 sen or 6% higher than the closing price of 25 sen on Friday.

It was the most actively traded stock over the morning session.

To recap, Halim increased his stake in the oil and gas company after buying an additional 40 million shares at 20.5 sen apiece for RM8.2 million.

He acquired the shares off-market on March 10.

A Bursa Malaysia filing showed that Halim had purchased the shares from Sumatec's non-independent, non-executive director Chan Yok Peng who sold 40 million shares at 20.5 sen per share on March 10, in what was stated as a disposal via a private arrangement.