Excelpoint says it's unaware of reason for unusual trading volume

ELECTRONICS component distributor Excelpoint Technology said it is not aware of reasons for the unusual volume movements in its shares on Friday in response to a query from the Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo) earlier in the day.

At 4.30pm, the bourse regulator issued a query to Excelpoint on the "unusual volume movements" in its shares. Over the course of the trading day, some one million shares changed hands which pushed the counter's share price up by 14.9 per cent to close at 81 cents.

In comparison, the monthly average of the company's cumulative trading volume in the last three months was 1.99 million shares. According to Bloomberg data, the counter's 30-day average volume was 118,000.

Excelpoint closed at 70.5 Singapore cents on Thursday, and opened at 71.5 cents on Friday morning. The counter ended the first half of the trading day at 74.5 cents, up 5.7 per cent or four cents.

The stock made steady gains over the second half of the trading day, rising to touch as much as 81 cents at 4.18pm, before paring some gains to trade at 79.5 cents at 4.30pm. The shares then recovered to end the week at 81 cents.

In its query, SGX RegCo asked if the group was aware of any possible explanation for the trading activity, including any information not previously announced, or the public circulation of information by rumours or reports.

The regulator also asked the company to confirm its compliance with listing rules.

In its response at 7.04pm, Excelpoint said it was unaware of any information not previously announced, including those that may be material and price-sensitive, that would explain the heavy trading. The company also confirmed its compliance with the listing rules.

Excelpoint had on May 11 released its performance review for the first fiscal quarter of 2021 ended March. The company posted a net profit of US$4.4 million for Q1, up from profit of US$229,000 in the year-ago period. Earnings per share were lifted to 3.66 US cents from 0.19 US cent.

Revenue for the quarter rose 32.9 per cent to US$336.3 million from US$253 million in Q1 FY2019. The group attributed this mainly to higher sales from its Singapore and Hong Kong business units on the back of greater demand for semiconductors in line with accelerated technology adoption.