KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 14 — Kenanga Research has reiterated an “outperform” call on Nestle (Malaysia) Bhd with a target price of RM76.10 in anticipation of better margins in the second half of the year.

“We were expecting to see better margins in the second part of this year on buoyant domestic sales growth and lower commodities prices.

“Despite slowing consumer confidence, Nestle managed to improve domestic sales in the first half by 9.1 per cent due to aggressive marketing efforts and introduction of new products such as Maggi Royale Penang Seafood Curry and Nescafe Latte Caramel,” the research house said in a statement today.

Going forward, Kenanga expects to see a similar sales growth trend in the third quarter of 2014 but higher growth in the fourth quarter and first quarter of 2015 as customers begin to stock up in the months prior to Goods and Services Tax implementation on April 1, 2015. — Bernama