Singapore shares were little changed, but BreadTalk Group hit record high, extending gains for five straight sessions after Thailand's hospitality and leisure group Minor International PCL (MINT) raised its stake in the company.
Both the Straits Times Index and the MSCI index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan were flat.
BreadTalk shares rose as much as 8 percent to S$1.085 on Tuesday and have gained 27.6 percent since Primacy Investment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of MINT, raised its stake in late March.
Shares of offshore vessel builder STX OSV Holdings (VARD) jumped 2.8 percent to a two-week high of S$1.265. About 11 million shares were traded, 1.5 times the average full-day volume over the past 30 days.
Maybank Kim Eng raised its target price on the shares of STX OSV to S$1.66 from S$1.23 with a 'buy' rating.
"As a premium Norwegian shipyard, we believe that VARD deserves to trade at a higher valuation than Asian peers," the broker said, adding that VARD's market capitalization is "significantly larger" than most Asian offshore support vessels shipbuilders.
1340 (0540 GMT)
Reporting by Teo Jion Chun; Editing by Bijoy Koyitty (teo.jionchun@thomsonreuters.com)(+6564035659)(Reuters Messaging: teo.jionchun.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)
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12:46 STOCKS NEWS SINGAPORE-BreadTalk soars to record high after Thai firm raises stake
Shares in BreadTalk Group Ltd extended gains for the fifth day in a row and jumped to a record high after a unit of Thailand's hospitality and leisure group Minor International PCL (MINT) raised its stake in the company.
BreadTalk shares rose as much as 8 percent to S$1.085, with 1.4 million shares traded, 1.4 times the average full-day volume over the past 30 days.
They have gained 27.6 percent since Primacy Investment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of MINT, bought 7.25 million shares at an average of S$0.83 each, raising its stake to 8.85 percent on March 22.
"BreadTalk offers MINT an excellent portal to extend its cross-selling channels, as well as an opportunity to strengthen and add prominent brands to its growing overseas portfolio," Maybank Kim Eng said in a report last week.
Maybank added that BreadTalk's current valuations are below its peers with a forward consensus price/earnings ratio of 15.6 times against 16.5 times.
"One reason may be MINT believed that BreadTalk's profits are understated by its expansion costs and the stock will look cheap once the expansion phase slows," Maybank said.
1220 (0420 GMT)
