Stock Buy Call: China Essence price target of 0.955 by Philips Securities!

China Essence Group Ltd was higher on the back of a 20 pct improvement in year to March 2006 net profit, dealers said. For the term it reported net profit of 120.52 mln yuan. The stock was up 0.010 sgd or 1.75 pct at 0.580 on volume of 8.73 mln shares. Sales grew 24 pct to 385.23 mln yuan helped by higher volumes and average selling prices of both potato starch and potato starch-based products. "China Essence is optimistic of its performance in (the year to March) 2007, and expects order momentum for core products, potato starch and potato starch-based products to remain strong due to new market penetration and new distributors," it said in a statement. Phillip Securities maintained a "buy" recommendation on China Essence with fair value of 0.855 sgd. "In terms of valuation, we believe China Essence is the most attractively priced within its peer universe," Phillip analyst Eric Ong said in a note.