Written by The Edge Financial Daily
Thursday, 20 August 2009 23:32
KUALA LUMPUR: The firmer overnight close on Wall Street should underpin market sentiment on Aug 21 and blue chips should extend their gains but some profit taking in the afternoon could cap the advances especially ahead of the weekend.
On Wall Street, US stocks rose for a third straight session with financial stocks leading gains after US manufacturing data and a rebound in Chinese stocks reassured investors.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.76%, to end at 9,350.05. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 1.09% to 1,007.37 while the Nasdaq Composite Index added 1.01% to close at 1,989.22.
Stocks to watch on include glove makers, PLANTATION []s, YTL Corp, MISC BHD [], MMC Corp Bhd, PLUS EXPRESSWAYS BHD [] and AFFIN HOLDINGS BHD [].
The surge in new A (H1N1) cases with 569 yesterday, the highest in a day, could prompt investors to pick up glove makers and pharmaceutical stocks.
Plantations could attract interest following comments that crude palm oil prices are likely to exceed RM3,000 a tonne over the next six months. According to Malaysian Palm Oil Council chief executive officer Tan Sri Dr Yusof Basiron the higher price is due to strong demand amid tighter supply.
YTL Corp's net profit for 4Q ended June 30 fell 50.4% due to a one-odd deferred tax charge for its utilities division.
But for FY09, it posted a 12.1% increase in net profit of RM863.12 million. It recommended a single tier first and final dividend of 15% for FY ended June 30, 2009 and declared a share dividend distribution of one treasury share for every 50 shares held as at Sept 9.
MISC's net profit fell 55.3% to RM233.45 million in 1Q ended June 30, 2009, from RM522.86 million a year earlier though revenue gained 8.3% to RM3.9 billion from RM3.6 billion. It said the contraction in the global trade was expected to impact the shipping industry as reflected by the falling rates in petroleum and container shipping.
As for PLUS, 2Q net profit rose 5.7% to RM281.32 million from RM266.04 million a year earlier mainly due to higher revenue and lower operating expenses. Of interest would be toll compensation recoverable from the government increased to RM2.18 billion as at June 30 this year from RM1.91 billion as at end-December 2008.
Meanwhile, PLUS denied any knowledge of a takeover offer from parties related to its former indirect major shareholder Tan Sri Halim Saad.
MMC announced that its subsidiary Gas Malaysia Sdn Bhd has inked a new gas supply agreement with Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) consisting of 300 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of natural gas.
Gas Malaysia will be able to provide long-term supply of natural gas to its industrial users, which would incur lower energy costs from using competitively priced natural gas.
As for Affin, its net profit for the second quarter ended June 30, 2009, grew 44% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM89.82 million, on the back of higher net interest income and Islamic banking income. Its flagship bank Affin Bank Bhd recorded a lower pre-tax profit of RM104.5 million in 2QFY09 versus RM112.3 million a year earlier.
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