Stock News: M1 1st quarter earning beat forecast!

MobileOne Ltd may rise after reporting a 12.2 pct year-on-year rise in first quarter net profit to 45 mln sgd. The figure was better than Merrill Lynch's forecast of 40.8 mln sgd. First-quarter operating revenue was 189.5 mln sgd -- the same as it was the year before -- while operating expenses dropped 5.3 pct to 131.7 mln sgd from 139 mln. "Based on the current outlook, MobileOne expects to achieve single-digit growth in profit after tax for the year," company chief executive Neil Montefiore said. MobileOne closed up 0.03 sgd at 2.21 yesterday.