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)