SINGAPORE - Shares of mainboard-listed Noble Group continued to weaken on Monday (Aug 17) ahead of an event that will provide investors more information and clarity about Asia's biggest commodity trader.
As at 11.07am this morning, Noble was trading at 45.5 cents, down 3.5 cents or 7.1 per cent from their close of 49 cents last Friday.
Noble announced last Tuesday that it would hold an event today at 2pm, where management would present a comprehensive explanation of how Noble's business works, and its interim results. Management would also speak on the findings of a PwC review, and hold a full and open Q&A session, it had said.
Noble's share price jumped 8 per cent last Friday, the day after the company released the findings of a review on its accounting practices by PricewaterhouseCoopers and its second-quarter earnings. PwC concluded that Noble had not breached accounting rules. In announcing Noble's latest results, chief executive Yusuf Alireza noted that core businesses were still healthy despite the challenging commodity market. Net profit for the three months to June 30 slid 5 per cent, but volume delivered grew 40 per cent in the first six months this year, Mr Alireza said.
Since Tuesday though, Noble shares have fallen daily in part because of China's move to dramatically weaken the yuan.
Contributing to the fall, however, was also weak investor confidence, analysts have told the Straits Times. Sentiment around Noble has deteriorated beyond recovery, no matter what the management shows or says, CMC Markets analyst Nicholas Teo said last week.
"Certainly, its move to provide more disclosures and the second-quarter results, which were really not too bad considering the market conditions, did not justify the uncontrollable drop (of share prices)," he said.
Now, investors wait to see what will happen to the share price following the information event.
