SHARES in Centro Properties Group continued their surge yesterday, closing 1 percent higher on strong trading volumes after an unexplained 40 percent rise on Thursday.
Centro shares yesterday ended up 0.5c to 38c, taking the group's market capitalisation to $369 million -- a far cry from the $45.7m in March, when shares fell to 4.7c.
Nearly 83 million shares, or almost 8 per cent of the shares on issue, were traded yesterday on top of the 184 million shares that were traded, mainly by retail investors, on Thursday.
The burst of activity in the past two weeks has triggered two price queries by the Australian Securities Exchange..
This week's flurry of trade, where more than 20 per cent of the stock has changed hands, has created a major windfall for the fortunate investors who picked up the stock when it hovered below 13c in the days after its near collapse. Among those who purchased Centro shares on the cheap were members of the Centro Shareholders Association, a group of mainly Chinese investors who hold more than 11 percent of the shopping centre owner's shares.
Spokesman Kevin Zhang yesterday said the association's members had not traded their shares in recent days and did not want to comment on how much they had made by buying into the stock after the company's near collapse.
But he maintained there was value in the company.
"The trading activities of Centro shares in the past few days may indicate more people realise the real value of Centro," he said.
In the boom, Centro, which owns more than 700 shopping centres in Australia, New Zealand and the US, saw its shares hit almost $10, but they crashed to less than $1 when the company announced it was unable to refinance $3.9 billion worth of debt
CNP Price at posting:
38.0¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
