Ports propel share index to record levels

Shares at the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) closed at the highest in a year on Friday, propelled by a rise in the share prices of Sihanoukville Autonomous Port and Phnom Penh Autonomous Port, as well as news of a surge in trading accounts.

The Cambodian Securities Index (CSI) ended at 416.3 points, a record close. Earlier, it hit an intraday high of 421.4 points.

On Friday, the index rose 4.3 percent, or 17.3 points. 7,009 shares worth $9,854.3 (39.7 million riel) were traded on that day.

The exchange operator attributed the rally in the index to good business performance of listed companies posting attractive profit and dividend yields.

“(We notice) the stocks of the two ports, Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (PAS) and Phnom Penh Autonomous Port (PPAP) contributed largely to the index uptrend.

“In July, PAS announced a relatively high dividend yield of 7.9 percent for 2017, compared to the 4 percent to 5 percent recorded by market,” CSX said.

It noted the PPAP reported a 59.9 percent rise in net profit for the third financial quarter, compared to a year ago.

“These disclosures might have attracted new investors to trade actively, pushing up share prices,” CSX said.

The index traded around 334 points from January to August this year, before taking on an upward trend, CSX said in a statement.

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