KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 18): Advance Synergy Bhd (ASB) and Malayan United Industries Bhd's (MUIIND) rare heavy share-trade volume continued today while the stocks' prices fell as these companies, which are said to be linked to PKR president and opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, have drawn investors' attention since Monday (Aug 16) as Anwar is seen as a potential prime minister candidate after Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's resignation as prime minister.

It was reported that Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah on Monday accepted Muhyiddin and his Cabinet's collective resignations and that the King consented to Muhyiddin taking over the role of caretaker prime minister until his successor is appointed.

At Bursa Malaysia's 12.30pm break today, diversified company ASB saw some 249 million shares traded after the stock's price settled down 3.5 sen or 15.56% at 19 sen.

MUIIND saw about 62 million shares traded after the diversified group's stock price fell one sen or 9.52% to 9.5 sen.

ASB and MUIIND's rare heavy share-trade volume has been observed since Monday when their share trade volumes spiked to about 138 million and 93 million units respectively from around 26 million and 1.42 million respectively on Friday (Aug 13).

Yesterday (Aug 17), ASB's share-trade volume jumped to about 466 million units while MUIIND's volume rose to around 129 million.

At Bursa's afternoon break today, ASB's share price settled lower on profit taking after rising for two consecutive days to close at 22.5 sen yesterday (Aug 17) from 17 sen on Friday (Aug 13).

Today, MUIIND's share price settled lower at 12.30pm after rising for two consecutive days to close at 10.5 sen yesterday from 8.5 sen on Friday.

Anwar's sister Farizon Ibrahim is an independent non-executive director of MUIIND, according to the latest annual report of MUIIND, the diversified businesses of which include retail and hotel operations besides property development.
"She (Farizon) was appointed to the board (of MUIIND) on June 26, 2018. She is a member of the audit committee.

"She sits on the boards of (MUIIND-linked companies) Pan Malaysia Holdings Bhd, Pan Malaysian Industries Bhd, Pan Malaysia Capital Bhd and Metrojaya Bhd," MUIIND's annual report said.

Meanwhile, news reports have indicated that ASB group chairman Datuk Ahmad Sebi Bakar is linked to Anwar although the reports did not say how they were linked.

ASB said on its website that Ahmad Sebi was appointed to the board of the company on Aril 9, 1991 and redesignated from executive chair to group executive chair on Sept 28, 2012.

"On Sept 1, 2017, he was redesignated to non-executive group chair," ASB said.

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