Hot stock: Noble hits S$1.30 after Q3 results

SHARES in the Noble Group rose to a high of S$1.30 on Monday morning, up 10 cents from Friday's close, after the commodities trader reported strong Q3 results.

The counter opened at S$1.285, climbed to S$1.30 before easing to S$1.27 around 10 am. The stock was the second most heavily traded by volume, with about 18.73 million shares changing hands.

In its Q3 FY2014 results, which were released after the market closed on Friday, the firm saw net profit surge to US$153.9 million, up from US$22.9 million a year ago. This was on the back of higher trading volumes and a turnaround profit on the group's supply chain assets.

Meanwhile, revenue increased 7 per cent to US$23.3 billion, from US$21.8 billion a year ago.

The bottom line was bolstered by a profit of US$81.8 million on its supply chain assets, versus a loss of US$10.3 million last year. This included gains from the divestment of a 51 per cent stake of Noble Agri to a consortium backed by China's largest grain trader Cofco.

For the nine months ended Sept 30, net profit nearly trebled to US$372 million, as revenue climbed 4 per cent to US$64.8 billion.

Noble is giving a special dividend of US$0.03 a share, payable on Dec 5.