TENAGA 5347 TENAGA NASIONAL BHD touches nearly nine-year low of RM8.79 amid market sell-off

 TENAGA 5347 TENAGA NASIONAL BHD touches nearly nine-year low of RM8.79 amid market sell-off

KUALA LUMPUR (June 9): Shares in Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) slumped to a nine-year low on Thursday (June 9), amid broad-based selling pressure, which caused the benchmark FBM KLCI to close nearly 1% lower.  

The utility giant’s shares settled at its intraday low of RM8.79 — the lowest since October 2013, giving it a market capitalisation of RM50.33 billion. It saw a total of 6.47 million shares exchanging hands during the day.

The stock has been on a downward trend since touching a peak of RM10.56 on Aug 30 last year. Since the beginning of the year, it has tumbled 5.9%.

A check on Bloomberg shows that there are 12 “Buy” calls for TNB, four “Hold” and four “Sell”, with a consensus target price of RM10.79.

Notably, Macquarie on Thursday slashed its call on TNB to “Underperform” from “Neutral”, while revising downward its target price to RM7.60 from RM8.90 previously.

The group’s dividend yield stands at 4.6%.

In the first quarter ended March 31, 2022 (1QFY22), the group’s net profit slipped 6.84% to RM893.1 million from RM958.7 million a year earlier, owing to higher tax expenses.

TNB said the higher tax expense was due to an increase in deferred tax expense of RM191.8 million and a reduction in current tax expense of RM34.8 million, which was a result of a lower taxable income.

Revenue grew 36.42% to RM15.66 billion from RM11.48 billion, mainly driven by the under-recovery position of Imbalance Cost Pass-Through (ICPT) of RM3.5 billion, as compared to the previous corresponding period which was in an over-recovery position of RM327.3 million.

Operating expenses rose 46.9% to RM13.43 billion from RM9.15 billion, mainly due to higher fuel price which was passed through the ICPT. However, the operating profit recorded a slight increase of RM41.8 million or 1.8% due to lower net loss on impairment of financial instruments.

http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/tnb-touches-nearly-nineyear-low-rm879-amid-market-selloff