Hot stock: Noble rebounds on potential financings, strategic investment options

SHARES of Noble Group rebounded on Monday, after the commodities group unveiled that its management has been approached by several parties in terms of "potential financings, and strategic and/or investment options".

Noble opened at S$0.475, and hit S$0.495 a share. At 09.21am, it was trading around S$0.465, up S$0.01, or 2.20 per cent, with more than 40 million shares traded.

"The news triggered some short-covering this morning,'' a broker said.

Early Monday, Hong Kong-based Noble said it would unveil its second quarter results earlier, on Aug 10 instead of Aug 13. Aug 10 is a public holiday in Singapore.

It also gave a preview of its Q2 results, which it described as satisfactory, and said that the business in the first month of Q3 is ahead of Q2. It added that its net fair value gains have fallen again in Q2, and that its operating income and profits remained positive.

Addressing market rumours over its ability to fund the US$735 million bond redemption due on Aug 4, Noble said it has ample funds to do so and will still have readily available cash of well over US$1 billion after. It said as of the end of July, it has around US$15 billion in bank lines.