Hot stocks: Jardine C&C up 5.9%, Dairy Farm falls 4.2% after H1 results release

SHARES of Jardine Cycle & CarriageC07 (Jardine C&C) rose while shares of Dairy Farm InternationalD01 : D01 0% fell in early trade on Friday, after both companies on Thursday released their financial results for the half-year period ended June 30.

Shares of Jardine C&C were up S$0.57 or 2.8 per cent at S$20.87 as at 11.54am on Friday, after rising S$1.20 or 5.9 per cent to S$21.50 earlier.

Meanwhile, shares of Dairy Farm were down US$0.16 or 4.2 per cent at US$3.82 as at 11.54am on Friday.

Both stocks were trading on a cum-dividend basis. Jardine C&C had declared an interim dividend of US$0.18 a share, to be paid out on Sept 30, while Dairy Farm's board had declared an interim dividend of US$0.03 a share, to be paid out on Oct 13.

According to ShareInvestor data, no married deals were recorded in early trade for the two companies, which are both under Jardine Matheson Group.

On Thursday, Jardine C&C - known in Singapore as a Mercedes-Benz dealer - reported its first-half underlying profits more than doubled to US$346.5 million from US$137.7 million the year before, on the back of looser Covid-19 restrictions in its regional markets.

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Retail giant Dairy Farm had in contrast posted a first-half underlying net profit of US$32.1 million, down 69.5 per cent from US$105.1 million the year before, amid lower contributions from the key grocery segment.

Dairy Farm's H1 results had missed consensus forecasts, RHB noted in a research note on Friday, adding that the results "disappointed on a sharper-than-expected dip in grocery retail earnings and persistent health and beauty weakness".