Sampoerna shares rebound 5.8% after 22% drop

Sampoerna shares rebound 5.8% after 22% drop

JAKARTA (JP): The share price of cigarette maker HM Sampoerna
rebounded by 5.8 percent yesterday on bargain hunting following a
22 percent drop in the first three days of this week, dealers
said.

Meanwhile, the Jakarta Stock Exchange Composite Index inched
up 1.7 points to 567.92, mainly due to speculative buying on
second liner and third liner stocks.

A dealer with a Japanese-based brokerage told The Jakarta Post
that buying interest on Sampoerna was motivated soley by
technical reasons.

"I don't think that investors have become more positive on the
acquisition of Astra shares by Sampoerna and its founder Putera
Sampoerna," another dealer with a London-based brokerage said.

Investors have been more cautious about Sampoerna, following
its acquisition of Astra shares late last month. In the first
three days of this week, Sampoerna's share price dropped from a
high of Rp 22,450 (US$9.57) on Monday's opening to Rp 18,300 at
Wednesday's close.

Sampoerna's price rebounded Rp 1,075 yesterday to close at Rp
19,375, with an estimated turnover of around 2.1 million shares.

One of the two dealers said that Sampoerna shares which
currently traded at a price earning ratio of 23.8 times might go
up further today.

The two dealers also said that the market was still waiting
for confirmation about the rumored "takeover" of Astra by several
businessmen.

"It's very hard to get information about who was behind the
large number of transactions on Astra late last month. So, I
would say that the transactions were rather sensitive," he said.

The dealers said that although Sampoerna has attracted the
attention of many investors, the market still questioned the
identity of new investors who might have entered Astra.

An informed source from Astra told the Post that based on the
latest data from Astra's share registration office, on Oct. 7 the
company's stockholder composition remained unchanged because
Putera and Sampoerna had not registered their shares.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Humpuss Group, Hutomo (Tommy)
Mandala Putra, denied the rumor that he wants to acquire Astra to
back up his newly-established national carmaker, PT Timor Putra
Nasional.

"We don't need Astra's support to develop national cars," he
said.

He also refuted an assumption that Timor Putra needs Astra to
help boost production efficiency.

"We will build car plants which offer higher efficiency," he
said.

The market also speculated that Tommy might have supported
Putera Sampoerna's acquisition of Astra shares. (alo)