Unisem PDT and IDSS trading to be suspended for rest of day

KUALA LUMPUR: Unisem (M) Bhd, which plunged 17%, the biggest move since the company IPO in 1998, will see its proprietary day traders (PDT) and intraday short selling (IDSS) activities suspended for the rest of today.

In a statement, Bursa Malaysia Securities said the suspension was due to the last done price of Unisem dropping more than 15 sen or 15% from the reference price.

It added that the PDT and IDSS activities will only be enabled the following trading day, on Thursday, April 26 at 9am.

The semiconductor manufacturer tumbled 17.12%, or 38 sen to RM1.84, after its first-quarter results slumped 87% with unfavourable exchange rate, lower margins. 
Its share value was fallen 50% year-to-date. 

Unisem’s net profit slumped 87% in the first quarter ended March 31, 2018, due to a weaker US dollar against the ringgit, and lower profit margins arising from a change in product mix.

Also contributing to the lower earnings for the period was the recognition of foreign exchange losses of RM9.95mil.

The group posted a net profit of RM6.05mil in its 1QFY18, against RM44.9mil previously, while revenue fell 11% to RM321.55mil from RM360.25mil.

The company, however, expects the group’s performance to improve in the coming quarter and remain satisfactory till the end of the financial year.

MIDF said Unisem’s first quarter performance was “severely below expectations”. The research house said Unisem’s 1Q18 came in severely below the house and consensus expectations, accounting for 8.2% and 10.3% of full year FY18 earnings estimates respectively.

It has downgraded Unisem to trading sell with a lower target price of RM1.90 per share from RM4.27 previously.