BAT shares up on cigarette price hike

KUALA LUMPUR: Shares of British American Tobacco (BAT) rose early Wednesday after the group announced its cigarette price hike effective.

At 10.32am, its shares rose 10 sen to RM67.96 with 104,000 shares traded between RM67.90 and RM68.10. 

The FBM KLCI was down 7.35 points to 1,840.01. Turnover was 751.66 million shares valued at RM426.64mi. There were 144 gainers, 442 decliners and 253 counters unchanged.

AmResearch said in a note that it has maintained a Hold call on BAT. 

"BAT announced that effective today, the retail selling prices (RSP) of its 20-stick premium and aspirational premium packs will be raised from RM12.00 to RM13.50 (+12.5%) and RM10.50 to RM12.00 (+14.3%), respectively. 

"That said, we believe that BAT’s margins would remain intact as we believe the price increase is more than sufficient to absorb the impact of the duty hike," it said.

While the other cigarette manufacturers, namely JT International and Philip Morris International are legally bound to raise their pack prices (by a minimum of 70 sen), it remains to be seen if the hikes will be of a similar quantum, it said.