KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 11): Top gainer Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Bhd rose as much as 52 sen or 4.6% after the Islamic insurer proposed a one-to-five share split to improve the stock's liquidity. Investors have also bought the stock to be entitled for its dividend.

Syarikat Takaful (fundamental: 1.1; valuation: 1.95) rose to an intraday high of RM11.82 before reducing gains. At 10:34am, Syarikat Takaful was traded at RM11.76.

A total of 12,700 shares were traded. For comparison, the FBM KLCI fell 1.5 points or 0.1% to 1,809.62.

Year-to-date, Syarikat Takaful shares had gained 3.53% versus the KLCI's 3.33%.

In a filing with the exchange yesterday, Syarikat Takaful said it planned to split one share with a par value of RM1 into five units of 20 sen each.

Syarikat Takaful said the share split would not have any effect on the company's issued and paid-up share capital, substantial shareholders’ stakes, and financials.

In a separate statement, Syarikat Takaful said it had proposed a dividend of 40 sen a share in the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2014 (4QFY14).

The dividend was despite the company reporting lower net profit during 4QFY14.

The firm said net profit fell to RM29.75 million from RM41.48 million a year earlier. For the full year, net profit rose to RM140.52 million.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company's profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)