KUALA LUMPUR (May 9): Shares of VSTECS Bhd (KL:VSTECS) climbed to a new all-time high on Thursday as investors scrambled for a piece of the company that has been appointed the country’s first distributor of Amazon Web Services (AWS).

VSTECS shares rose by as much as 29.71% or 82 sen in active trade, to close at its intra-day high and a new record of RM3.58 on Thursday. The counter saw 17.45 million shares changing hands, 19 times its 65-day average daily volume of 913,740 shares.

Conversely, the Bursa Malaysia Technology Index fell 0.31% on Thursday, ending its four-day rally that brought the index to its highest in 15 months since February 2023.

At RM3.58, VSTECS had a market capitalisation of RM1.28 billion. Shares of the IT products distributor has racked up 169.17% in gains since the beginning of this year and 173.28% in the past one year.

No institutional analyst covers VSTECS.

On Wednesday, VSTECS announced to Bursa Malaysia that its wholly owned subsidiary VSTECS Ku Sdn Bhd has been selected by AWS to provide highly scalable and cost-effective cloud services.

VSTECS said the services include computing, storage, databases, analytics, networking, and application services to enterprises in the private and public sectors in Malaysia.

The company's extensive network of channel partners and expertise in cloud services will ensure seamless access and support for Malaysian businesses looking to migrate to the cloud or optimise their existing cloud infrastructure, VSTECS added.

Shares of VSTECS — which distributes products ranging from notebooks to smartphones and from printers to enterprise software from more than 40 principals — have more than doubled year-to-date and widely outperformed the technology sector thanks to its strong earnings.

VSTECS net profit climbed 13% to RM67.43 million for the year ended Dec 2023 (FY2023) on revenue of RM2.73 billion. At current price, the stock is trading at 18 times FY2023’s earnings, compared to an average of 9.2 times among consumer product distribution peers on Bursa Malaysia, and average of of 53 times among Bursa Malaysia Technology Index component stocks.

In January, VSTECS announced that its unit VSTECS Astar Sdn Bhd signed an agreement to be an authorised SpaceX’s Starlink high-speed internet distributor in Malaysia.

VSTECS said the group will leverage its extensive network of channels and established relationships with retailers and a diverse client base across critical sectors like education, healthcare, finance, and the public sector to offer the product.