looks like axiata and TM can hold the waves up till now .... Could it be the rumours of special dividen from TM after diposing axiata shares playing the effects ?

I suggest this counter is good for our volatile market at the moment.

keep an eye this counter

KUALA LUMPUR: OSK Research is upgrading TM to a BUY with a fair value of RM4.80 from its last close of RM4.01.

The research house said on Wednesday, Aug 17 the upgrade was due to its more cautious house view on the broader market and TM’s defensive attribute.

Other positive factors were the strong traction for TM’s high speed broadband service and also the dividend upside potential.

“TM’s 1HFY11 results, due to be announced on 24 Aug should hold little surprises with the key highlight being the strong growth of Unifi as the service expands to new areas,” it said.

OSK Research said it raised its FY11-13 forecasts to build-in the stronger than expected growth for Unifi and incorporating bigger contribution from its wholesale business from 4Q11.

“There is over 20% upside to our revised FV of RM4.80 (6x FY12 EV/EBITDA) which now integrates a potential special DPS of 13sen/share. TM is our other top telco pick aside from Axiata,” it said.

Looks like TM might give us a surprise. For long term defensive investor, you guys might want to get this in your portfolio.

This post has been edited by javelin819: Aug 17 2011, 02:53 PM

KUALA LUMPUR: Axiata Group Bhd's net profit rose 14.94% to RM663.05 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2011 from RM576.82 million a year ago, mainly due to higher contribution from XL, Idea and Multinet, as well as lower depreciation, amortisation and impairment charges.

It said on Tuesday, Aug 23 revenue rose to RM4.05 billion from RM3.85 billion. Earnings per share were 8.0 sen compared with 7.0 sen. Net assets per share was RM2.25. It declared an interim tax exempt dividend of 4.0 sen per share for FY ending Dec 31, 2011.

However, for the six months ended June 30, Axiata’s net profit fell 19% to RM1.21 billion from RM1.49 billion in the previous corresponding period. Revenue increased by 4.2% to RM7.99 billion from RM7.66 billion.

Reviewing its results, Axiata said the improved revenue was mainly due to higher contribution from Robi, Dialog, XL and Celcom.

It said Robi’s revenue grew by 20.4% mainly due to increase in prepaid usage and 33.7% increase in prepaid revenue generating subscriber base.

Dialog revenue grew 9.4% mainly from increase in interconnect and data revenue, both increased by more than 100%, it said.

XL’s revenue growth was mainly resulted from increase in subscriber base and outgoing SMS by 13.6% and 54.6% respectively, while Celcom revenue grew by 2.7% driven by postpaid and broadband revenue growth of 12.1% and 28.7% respectively, it said.

Axiata said revenue of market leader in Sri Lanka, Dialog, grew by 10.0% contributed from higher prepaid, postpaid and interconnect revenue which increased by 2.7%, 8.4% and more than 100% respectively’

Operating costs increased by 7.7% to RM4.49 billion from RM4.18billion in 1H’10, mainly driven by Celcom, XL and Robi arising mainly from higher network related costs.

Other operating income of the group decreased by 90.5% to RM35.7 million in 1H11 from RM374.7 million in 1H10, due to the one-off gain on disposal of shares in XL of RM337.9 million recorded in 1H10, it said.

Axiata said it recorded lower net finance costs of RM199.7 million in 1H11 as compared to RM284.1 million in 1H10 as a result of reduction of overall debt position at group level.

Meanwhile, average exchange rates in 1H11 of countries and group remained relatively stable against US dollars and ringgit, it said.

Axiata said the group recorded net foreign exchange gains of RM19.5 million in 1H11 as compared to gains of RM2.6 million in 1H10.

The company’s president and group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Jamaludin Ibrahim said difficult operating conditions such as softening markets and the strengthening of the ringgit against most other currencies had continued in the second quarter of the year.

He said the latter had particularly affected Axiata’s operations in Bangladesh.

Despite these factors, he said performance from most operating companies had held firm, adding that XL and Dialog in particular, had performed well against market.

“We have also seen good data performance, from Celcom and XL, which has mitigated the slower growth. Concurrently, the demand for data is growing and the challenges of voice and sms data substitution is accelerating especially in our more mature markets.

“To alleviate this, the group has continued to invest in data initiatives in order to gear up our network which has seen short term pressure in our performance.

“We are confident that despite the short term pressure seen in this quarter’s results, we will be well poised to capitalise on new revenue opportunities, especially in the data business in the longer term,” he said.

KUALA LUMPUR: TELEKOM MALAYSIA BHD []’s earnings rose 2.3% to RM127.24 million in the second quarter ended June 30, 2011 from RM124.38 million a year ago, underpinned by its Internet, multimedia, data services.

TM said on Wednesday, Aug 24 revenue increased by 3.8% to RM2.23 billion from RM2.15 billion while its earnings per share were 3.60 sen versus 3.50 sen. It declared dividend of 9.80 sen compared with 13 sen a year ago.

The higher revenue, it said, was mainly due to higher revenue from Internet and multimedia, data services and other telecommunications related services. These services helped mitigate the impact of lower revenue from voice and non-telecommunications related services.

“Internet and multimedia services registered higher revenue by 21.1% to RM487.9 million in the current year quarter arising from increased broadband and UniFi customers to 1.72 million and 109,019 respectively in the current quarter from 1.54 million and 4,051 in the corresponding quarter 2010,” it said.

TM said data revenue increased by 7.1% to RM455.0 million from RM424.9 million due to demand for higher bandwidth services.

“Operating profit before finance cost of RM237.5 million increased by 14.5% from RM207.5 million recorded in the same quarter last year largely attributed to higher revenue and other operating income,” it said.

Group profit after tax and non-controlling interests (PATAMI) increased by 2.3% to RM127.2 million as compared to RM124.4 million in the corresponding quarter in 2010. This was attributed to higher revenue, lower net finance cost, net of higher tax charge.

Actually Axiata is doing quite well this year. With 16% net profit increases this quater compared to other telco stocks. We cannot complain.

i did not expect they are giving dividend this year again.

Hence 4c deviden is a bonus to Axiata Holders.

i am also worried about these 2 days trading.....

Anyone knows why Axiata have been dropping so badly.

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Added on August 25, 2011, 2:55 pmIt actually break 4.70 level

This post has been edited by javelin819: Aug 25 2011, 02:55 PM

Hmm.. It seems it can hold at 4.60...

I guess big players are coming in now for better price.

If it still going down, i will buy more later

wow.. Axiata hit 4.5 low.....Axiata is bleeding with no reason....

Yup

It gives me a scare when Axiata drops like nobody business last 3 days...

When the fundamental are strongs, it should start rebound

Hope that those got bottom fishing ard 4.5X can at least get thier money back.

tm is flying like nobody business