The Straits Times / The Business Times News on Cosco

Cosco gains from marine sector focus

COSCO Corp warrants were among the most actively traded counters yesterday. They were buoyed by a rise in the underlying share price by four cents to $1.57, on a volume of 7.4 million units.

Cosco warrants issued by Merrill Lynch were just as active, with a similar volume traded yesterday. They rose 1.5 cents, or 8.3 per cent, to close at 19.5 cents yesterday. With an exercise price of $1.55, the warrants are not yet in the money.

Mr Barnaby Matthews, the head of warrant sales at Macquarie Securities, said: 'There was strong activity across a number of the Cosco warrants, probably due to the interest of late in the marine sector.'

All the other Cosco warrants were also heavily traded, registering gains.

Macquarie's own batch of warrants on Cosco saw some 2.6 million units traded. With an exercise price of $1.65, the warrants rose two cents to 16 cents, a 14.3 per cent rise.

As second-quarter profits rose 30 per cent to $51 million, Cosco has recently enjoyed several upgrades by analysts.

Its order book of ship conversion and new shipbuilding contracts is also healthy.

Directors and senior management have also taken the opportunity of the buoyant share price to realise some profit.