TM, Axiata buck cautious market

Shares of TELEKOM MALAYSIA BHD and Axiata Group Bhd bucked the weaker market on Wednesday, July 27 on investors’ expectations of dividends from TM after it disposed on its remaining Axiata shares.


At 9.43am, TM was up 15 sen to RM4.14 with 2.44 million shares done. Axiata added nine sen to RM5.22 with 1.68 million units done.

The FBM KLCI shed 0.54 point to 1,561.23. Turnover was 168.5 million shares done valued at RM188.44 million. There were 152 gainers, 156 stocks unchanged and 193 unchanged.

TM’s unit has placed out 92.36 million Axiata shares at RM5.07 a share and raised gross proceeds of RM468.3 million. It said the shares were placed out to successful third-party foreign institutional investors. Following the placement, it only owned 807 shares.

CIMB Equities Research retained its Outperform call on TM  with a sum-of-parts based target price of RM4.92 and is its top Malaysian telco pick.

It said the likely price catalysts include the strong take-up of Unifi, expectations of a special dividend and positive earnings surprises.

“We think TM will pay a special dividend this year with the proceeds from the sale,” it said. (theedgemalaysia.com)