KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 6): Velesto Energy Bhd's share price climbed further today to close at a 20-month high of 38.5 sen. It is the most actively traded counter on Bursa Malaysia; its trading volume ballooned to 285.7 million shares, the highest level since January last year.

Year to date, the stock has soared nearly 114%.

At the current level, the stock is not that far from analysts' target prices. According to analysts polled by Bloomberg, the average target price is at 42 sen. AmBank Investment and Hong Leong Investment Bank (HLIB) have the highest target price at 46 sen.

Analysts said the company's third quarter results might give the bearing of its stock price.

Velesto is expected to release its quarterly financial numbers by the end of the month. The main concern is probably whether the contracts that were announced over the past months will manage to bring the oil rig operator back to the black.

Carimin Petroleum Bhd hits a record high of RM1.33, although just one sen higher than the previous peak. This is another oil and gas (O&G) stock that has outperformed despite the lacklustre sentiment. The counter, whose price has tripled year to date, went up nine sen or 7.26%. Some 6.42 million shares were traded today. The counter is trading at historical price-earnings ratio of 10.8 times.

Despite the strong march on share price, investors who subscribed to its initial public offer in 2014 at RM1.10 will now see the returns. Carimin was bogged down by the prolonged downturn in the O&G industry; its share price was on a downward slope until this year.

There is growing interest in Homeritz Corp Bhd of late. The trading volume of the cash-rich furniture maker's hardly traded stock rose above one million shares. Some 6.31 million shares were traded today, while its share price was up two sen to close at 71.5 sen.

"While we continue to like Homeritz due to healthy net cash per share of 27.2 sen and increased automation efforts, we believe further upside will be capped by its stretched valuations following recent share price outperformance (note that the share price has risen by 15.4% since September)," said HLIB in a result review.

For the financial year ended Aug 31, 2019 (FY19), Homeritz posted a net profit of RM22.12 million, slightly higher compared with RM21.06 million the year before. Revenue however, was lower at RM147.7 million, down 11.23% from RM166.4 million in FY18.

"While volume decline in FY19 remains a concern for the group, we note their revenue streams remain geographically diversified as Homeritz supplies to close to 40 different countries.

"Furthermore, Homeritz shared that they are benefiting from increased sales to the US, which they will continue to try to grow via trade fares. Homeritz has room for increased order volumes, as they are operating at just 70% capacity currently," said HLIB.

The investing fraternity will have to bid goodbye to Sumatec Resources Bhd, which is the second most traded counter on the exchange today.

Some 150 million shares traded today and its share price ended the day unchanged at 0.5 sen. Sumatec has been categorised as a Practice Note 17 (PN17) company since April last year. The company's shares will be suspended indefinitely coming Thursday until further notice. The suspension on share trade is the result of a winding-up order in respect to a winding-up petition.

Will the company's board be able to stop the trading suspension?