Genting Bhd, Malaysian gaming and plantation group, posted a 42.6 per cent fall in first-quarter profit, normalizing after a one-off gain from the disposal of its oil and gas units in the same quarter last year.
Reuters reports that Genting earned $129.17m in the three months that ended in March, compared with 693.63 million ringgit a year earlier, according to a local stock exchange filing on Thursday.
No forecast was available for the quarter according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Revenue fell by 2.8 per cent to 1.43 billion ringgit from a year ago, hit by weaker performance in plantations and leisure business in Singapore and the United Kingdom.
Its Singapore gaming unit Genting Singapore PLC posted on May 2 a 35 per cent fall in core earnings and missed market estimates as premium gamblers got lucky and won more of their bets.
Shares in Genting are up by about 12.83 per cent so far this year, while Genting Singapore rose 6.14 per cent.
Meanwhile, shares in Malaysian Airline System Bhd, the country's national carrier, slipped as much as 4.94 per cent on Thursday after the company posted a wider first-quarter net loss, hurt by foreign exchange losses and finance costs.
MAS on Wednesday reported a $90.52m loss in the three months ended March, compared with 171.8 million ringgit net loss a year earlier.
The company said added capacity in the market, increased competition and continued high jet fuel prices have placed pressure on yields.
"Results were below our and street expectations, as we expected MAS to post a full year net profit of 189 million ringgit," Affin Investment Bank said in a note to clients on Thursday.
Affin cut its rating on MAS to "sell" from "trading buy", and lowered its target price to 0.29 ringgit per share from 0.35 ringgit.
The shares in MAS had fallen by 3.7 per cent against the Malaysian benchmark stock index's 0.44 per cent loss.
