Stocks to watch: Prudential, Top Glove, ValueMax, Fu Yu, BlackGold Natural Resources

[SINGAPORE] The following companies saw new developments that might affect trading of its securities on Friday (Mar 21).

Prudential : The company on Thursday announced a joint venture with India’s HCL Group’s promoter company Vama Sundari Investments (Delhi) to operate a standalone health insurance business. Prudential and Vama will have, respectively, 70:30 stakes in the venture, which is subject to regulatory approvals. Prudential is eyeing growth in India, looking at opportunities to expand its life and health businesses, said chief executive Anil Wadhwani during an earnings call after the release of its 2024 financial year results on Thursday. Prudential reported a 2 per cent dip in new business profit to US$3.08 billion. On a constant exchange rate basis, new business profit would have been up 11 per cent. Overall, profit for FY2024 rose 41 per cent to US$2.4 billion. On a constant exchange rate basis, profit would have been up 43 per cent. Shares of Prudential ended Thursday flat at US$8.21.

Top Glove : The Malaysian glove manufacturer reported a net profit of RM30.3 million (S$9.1 million) for its second quarter ended Feb 28, reversing from a net loss of RM51.2 million the year before. This translated into basic earnings per share of 0.38 sen, from a basic loss per share of 0.64 sen for Q2 FY2024. The group attributed its improved performance to a sustained uptrend in glove orders on the back of recovering global demand, as well as trade diversions resulting from US tariffs on Chinese glove exports. The company will continue to reopen temporarily closed factories once current utilisation reaches around 70 per cent, and aims to increase its running capacity by 10 billion pieces by the end of FY2025. Shares of Top Glove ended Thursday unchanged at S$0.275.