KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 2): Malaysia Building Society Bhd (MBSB) shares rose as much as eight sen or 7% to RM1.25 after the financial services provider proposed a dividend of five sen a share.

MSBB announced the dividend on Tuesday (Jan 30) when the group also reported that net profit increased to RM417.13 million in financial year ended Dec 31, 2017 from RM201.41 million a year earlier.

At 9:57am today, MBSB shares pared gains at RM1.22 with some five million shares traded. MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd said MBSB's "results came in above ours and consensus expectation, accounting for 106.5% and 119.5% of full year estimates".

"On the group's outlook, we are positive on the group's creation of delivery channels, which will help in new customer acquisition as well as driving down operational expenses. Given this optimistic stance, we maintain our BUY call on the stock with TP (target price) of RM1.50," MIDF said. — theedgemarkets.com

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