Hot stock: Emperador up as much as 5.1% after news of STI addition

SHARES of mainboard-listed Emperador rose Friday (Sep 2) morning on heavy volumes after news that the stock will be replacing ComfortDelGro as a constituent on the Straits Times Index on Sep 19.  As at 9.03 am, the counter was trading up S$0.025 or 5.1 per cent at S$0.52 after some 584,000 securities changed hands. It later closed at 51 cents, up S$0.015 or 3 per cent, with 11.43 million shares transacted.  No married deals took place in early trade, said ShareInvestor. Emperador, which is primary-listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange and is a subsidiary of Filipino billionaire Andrew Tan’s Alliance Global Group, debuted on the SGX mainboard with its secondary listing in July. It is the largest liquor company in the Philippines, and its portfolio includes whiskey brands such as The Dalmore and Jura, as well as brandy under the Fundador and its eponymous Emperador brands. Analyst Brian Freitas of Periscope Analytics, who publishes on Smartkarma, said in an Aug 24 note that Philippine-based Emperador was in the “outright inclusion zone” for the STI based on closing prices on Aug 22, as its market capitalisation of S$8.3 billion put it in the 20th spot among eligible counters.

Meanwhile, shares in dropped to an intraday low of S$1.36 before finally closing at S$1.38 on Friday, shedding 2 cents or nearly 1.5 per cent, as some 18.32 million shares changed hands.

However, DBS and CGS-CIMB remained upbeat on the stock, advising investors to pick up the counter on share price weakness.