By NST Business
KUALA LUMPUR: Media Prima Bhd’s shares rose 7.2 per cent or six sen higher to 82 sen this morning, after global financial services firm Morgan Stanley Group bought more shares in the media company.
Trading volume was high with some 12.21 million shares done at 10.57am, according to Bloomberg.
Earlier this morning, the group’s share price peaked at 83 sen.
Media Prima, in its filing to Bursa Malaysia yesterday, said Morgan Stanley had acquired 755,000 shares, bringing its total shareholding in the media company to 88.84 million or equivalent to an eight per cent stake.
“For Media Prima, as it is a mid-cap company, there is a potential for further uptrend in its share price. This is expected, especially when a foreign company keeps buying shares in a local company,” a remisier, who declined to be quoted, told theedgemarkets.com.
Elaborating on this, the remisier said the allocation for small- and mid-cap public-listed companies (PLCs) announced in the Budget 2017 could be a driver behind Morgan Stanley’s interest in Media Prima.
At the tabling of the Budget 2017, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the government will introduce a small and mid-cap PLC Research scheme, while government-linked investment companies will set aside a special fund up to RM3 billion to the Securities Commission-backed fund managers, to invest in potential small- and mid-cap companies.
These allocations would also enable and make it easier for local institutions, retail investors, as well as foreign funds, to invest in these companies, the portal said.