KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 18): Widad Group Bhd revealed that the group is discussing several business proposals, in its response to the unusual market activity query issued by Bursa Securities after its share price plunged on Thursday and wiped out some RM937.56 million of its market capitalisation in a day.

Other than these discussions, which are at its preliminary stages, it said in a bourse filing that it has no idea what could be behind the unusual trading activity seen.

Widad, which hit the limit-down circuit breaker after dropping 30 sen or 61% to a low of 19 sen — its lowest in 2015 — was the day's second most actively traded stock on Bursa. It saw 124.99 million shares change hands.

At its latest closing price, the group is left with a market cap of RM582.44 million, down from Wednesday's RM1.52 billion, when the stock closed at 49 sen.

The group is a loss-making construction outfit. For its latest reported quarter ended Sept 30, 2023 (3QFY2023), it incurred a net loss of RM7.56 million, up from RM840,000 a year ago, due to higher finance costs arising from borrowings made to acquire a concession business. Rising labour and materials cost also ate into its construction margin during the quarter.

The group’s recent quarterly filing on Bursa showed that Widad has an outstanding order book of RM1.6 billion at end-September 2023, of which RM722.3 million was from the construction segment and RM902.9 million from the concession segment.