KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 ― Shares of Nestle Malaysia Bhd was among the list of active stocks traded this morning following the company's encouraging first half financial year 2014 (1HFY14) results posted yesterday.

At 9.54 am, the share was 10 sen higher at RM67.80 with 4,100 lots changing hands.

Nestle's revenue for the first six months rose 4.1 per cent, year-on-year, on the back of healthy domestic consumer spending and continued efforts in ramping up advertising and promotional activities to further strengthen its brands' market shares.

Affin Investment Bank said Nestle's net profit, which dipped seven per cent during the period to RM302 million, was in line with expectations.

“We deem the results are in line as first half is usually the stronger half, making up 50-60 per cent of full-year earnings,” it said in a note, adding that Nestle's new manufacturing plant in Sri Muda, Shah Alam, which was set to expand its “Ready to Drink” production lines, is expected to be ready by end-2014.

Affin maintained its “ADD” recommendation on Nestle with an unchanged target price of RM72.05.

“We continue to like Nestle as we believe that the weaker consumer sentiment landscape will not have a major impact on the company given its strong market position and solid brand name and product offerings which are deemed as necessities in households,” it added. ― Bernama