Bursa Malaysia Market Updates

Bursa Malaysia followed the key Asian markets higher early Friday, rising on the wave of optimism on Wall Street.
At 9.45am, the FBM KLCI was up 2.53 points or 0.14% to 1,761.62. Turnover was 558 million shares valued at RM227.08mil. There were 266 gainers, 170 losers and 313 counters unchanged.

Asian stocks rose after optimism over US tax reform plans lifted Wall Street shares to new highs, while the dollar hovered near a seven-week peak following additional indications of solid economic growth, Reuters reported.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.1%, poised for a 1.4% gain on the week. Japan's Nikkei climbed 0.3%, Australian stocks rose 0.7% and South Korea's KOSPI advanced 0.9%.At Bursa, BAT was up 48 sen to RM43.18, Sunway-WB 30 sen to 30.5 sen, Aeon Credit 20 sen to RM13 and Petron 12 sen to RM11.30.

KL Kepong rose 20 sen to RM24.98, Petronas Dagangan 14 sen to RM24.40 and Genting Plantations 12 sen to RM10.56 with just 100 shares done for each counter.

MRCB ordinary rights shares advanced 0.5 sen to 10 sen with 47.92 million units done. It was listed at 11 sen each.

Kossan fell 12 sen to RM6.80 while Hartalega lost four sen to RM6.84.
UEM Edgenta and Ajinomoto were down six sen to RM2.63 and RM19.96 while Tenaga fell four sen to RM14.20.

Renewed buying interest has emerged in E.A. Technique (M) Bhd, according to AllianceDBS Research.

EA Technique, which owns and operates marine vessels in Malaysia, saw its shares gained one sen, or 2.02% to 50.5 with more than 1.48 million shares traded.

AllianceDBS said EA Technique had on crossed over the 50 sen hurdle to reach an intraday high of 50.5 sen before settling at 49.5 sen on Thursday.

It added that a crossover of the 50 sen hurdle again would likely see Eatech trading upward with the next upside target pegged between 56 sen and 60 sen.

The research house said risk taking traders could establish a buying position at 48 sen on a small pullback.

“Once a buying position is established, a stop loss at 47 sen level must be placed for risk capital protection, and this 47 sen is to be followed by a trailing stop loss strategy.

“If you are prepared to take a trading loss risk of RM10 (excluding brokerage) for RM80 – RM120 potential profit, you may acquire 1,000 shares with a capital amount of RM480 assuming buying order is filled at 48 sen,” AllianceDBS said.

Shares in Sunway Construction Group Bhd (SunCon) were boosted in early trading on Friday after securing a RM2.18bil contract for LRT 3 project.

The counter gained five sen, or 2.17 to RM2.35 with more than 1.4 million shares unchanged hands. Its shares have risen more than 38% year-to-date.

SunCon has secured a contract worth RM2.18bil in connection with the LRT 3 project (Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya  to Johan Setia, Klang) from Prasarana Malaysia Bhd.

The latest contract has boosted SunCon's year-to-date job wins to RM3.75bil and outstanding construction order book to RM6.5bil.

With the award, SunCon has now exceeded its target orderbook replenishment of RM2bil, the company said.

AmInvestment Bank Research has raised its FY17-19F forecasts on SunCon by 0.4%, 2% and 3% respectively.

It has also increased its fair value to RM2.65 from RM2.60 and maintain its “buy” call.

“Our fair value is based on 15x revised FY18F EPS, in line with our benchmark forward PE of 14-16x for large-cap listed construction companies,” the research house said.

“We continue to like SunCon for its good earnings visibility underpinned by a sizeable outstanding order book which will keep it busy for the next 2-3 years, its strong prospects for new job wins underpinned by various mega infrastructure projects, particularly the rail-related ones, in the market and its proven track record with various blue-chip clients in the market,” AmInvestment said.

Kenanga Investment Bank Research is retaining its outperform call for steel products manufacturer United U-Li Corporation but with a lower target price of RM4.95 from RM5.60 previously.
It said on Friday while its earnings assumptions remain unchanged (FY19E EPS of 35.2 sen), it believes the shift in market preference to upstream steel counters could dampen trading sentiments for the stock. 

“This is further seen in the lower trailing forward price earnings ratio (PER) during the year which lingered at its average rate. Hence, we tone down our valuation assumptions from 16.0 times PER (+ one standard deviation over the five-year mean) to 14.0 times (+0.5 standard deviation over the five-year mean). 

“Nonetheless, we still like the stock and view its valuation as undemanding given its: (i) leading market position, (ii) strong expected growth prospect (two-year forward compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28%), (iii) expanding margins, and (iv) net cash position,” it said.

Source: http://www.thestar.com.my