KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 6): IOI Corp Bhd's share price closed up one sen or 0.27% at its intraday high today of RM3.71 after erasing losses as the oil palm plantation company resumed its share buy-back and as higher crude palm oil (CPO) prices supported industry sentiment.

On Bursa Malaysia, IOI Corp saw 1.05 million shares traded at 5pm.

IOI Corp's share price closed higher after the stock erased losses from its intraday low of RM3.65.

In its latest share buy-back filing with Bursa today, IOI Corp said it bought another 120,000 shares on the open market for RM442,813.96 at minimum and maximum prices of RM3.67 and RM3.70 a share respectively.

Following the purchase of the 120,000 shares, IOI Corp's cumulative number of net outstanding treasury shares stood at 51.52 million while its adjusted number of issued shares stood at 6.29 billion.

IOI Corp's closing share price of RM3.71 today gives the company a market capitalisation of about RM23.34 billion based on its 6.29 billion issued shares.

IOI Corp resumed its share buy-back today (Aug 6) following its last such corporate exercise on Tuesday (Aug 3).

According to IOI Corp's share buy-back filing with Bursa on Tuesday (Aug 3), IOI Corp bought 600,000 shares on the open market on that day at prices of between RM3.65 and RM3.67 for a total of RM2.19 million.

IOI Corp has been actively buying back its shares on the open market since February 2021 and its cumulative number of net outstanding treasury shares has more than doubled since then, its Bursa filings showed.

According to a Feb 2, 2021 filing, IOI Corp's cumulative number of net outstanding treasury shares stood at 19.68 million then after the company bought back 800,000 shares for RM3.41 million. IOI Corp said it paid between RM4.21 and RM4.25 for each share.

Today, IOI Corp's share price rise could have also been helped by higher prices of CPO as investors weighed the Malaysian plantation industry's prospects against Covid-19 pandemic-driven movement restrictions and global commodity prices.

Bursa CPO futures prices for September 2021 ended up RM27 to RM4,424 a tonne while CPO for October 2021 rose RM66 to RM4,283 a tonne.

Such sentiment also helped IOI Corp's rivals register share price gains today.

Sime Darby Plantation Bhd's share price closed up six sen or 1.74% to its intraday high of RM3.50 while Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd (KLK) rose four sen or 0.21% to RM19.28.

KLK also resumed its share buy-back today. KLK said in a Bursa filing that the company purchased 52,100 shares on the open market for RM1.002 million after paying between RM19.18 and RM19.20 for each share.

Following the purchase of the 52,100 shares, KLK said its cumulative number of net outstanding treasury shares stood at 2.84 million while its adjusted number of issued shares stood at 1.08 billion.