Written by Joseph Chin
Thursday, 01 July 2010 07:45
KUALA LUMPUR: Asian markets are expected to start off the second half on Thursday, July 1 on a cautious note after Wall Street closed lower following a late-day sell-off.
Overnight on Wall Street, U.S. stocks staggered to the end of a dismal second quarter on Wednesday, in another low volume session as investors found little reason to take on risk after conflicting economic data, according to Reuters.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 96.28 points, or 0.98 percent, to 9,774.02. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 10.53 points, or 1.01 percent, to 1,030.71. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 25.94 points, or 1.21 percent, to 2,109.24.
For the second quarter, the Dow fell 10 percent, the S&P 500 lost 12 percent and the Nasdaq dropped 12 percent as worry about Europe's sovereign debt and the sustainability of the U.S. economic recovery caused investors to pull back from the most recent closing highs hit in late April. These losses put Wall Street in correction mode as the second quarter ended.
Among key Asian markets, Shanghai's Composite Index was the worst performer year-to-date, sliding 26.82% while the Nikkei is down 11.04% year-to-date, Hang Seng Index is off 7.97%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index 11.68% and Singapore's Straits Times Index is down 2.14%.
At Bursa Malaysia, the FBM KLCI is however up 3.24% while Thailand's SET Index has rallied 8.55% despite the earlier political turmoil and Jakarta's Composite Index was the best performer, rising 14.97%
At Bursa Malaysia, stocks to watch include PLANTATION []s, Pantech, Berjaya Corp and Tanjong plc.
RHB Research had downgraded its call on the plantation sector to Neutral (from overweight) as it believes there are not many positive catalysts to move crude palm oil (CPO) prices up in the near term.
The research house said it therefore expects plantation share prices to remain lacklustre.
"Despite our now more cautious outlook for the sector for the short term, we maintain our CPO price forecasts of an average of RM2,500/tonne for 2010, RM2,700 for 2011 and RM2,500 for 2012," it said in a research note issued on Wednesday.
Pantech has proposed a bonus issue of up to 77.24 million new shares on a one-for-five basis, a renounceable rights issue of up to RM77.24 million nominal value of 7-year 7% irredeemable convertible unsecured loan stocks.
The ICULS will be issued on the basis of two 10 sen nominal value of ICULS for every one share together with 77.24 million free detachable warrant. It proposed one warrant for every 10 ICULS subscribed.
Berjaya Corp posted net profit of RM144.94 million or 3.41 sen a share in the 4Q ended April this year compared to a net loss of RM113.91 million a year ago.
Revenue rose 25.2 % to RM1.89 billion from RM1.51 billion while profit before tax (PBT) came to RM299.21 million compared to a loss before tax of RM37.52 million.
Tanjong plc’s net profit fell 11% to RM193.4 million for its first quarter ended April 30, 2010 (1QFY11) from RM216.3 million a year ago. Revenue dipped 3% year-on-year to RM945.8 million
Gross transaction value in 1QFY11 for the company is also down marginally by 3% to RM1.26 billion. Gross transaction value represents gross sales proceeds for the numbers forecast totalisator business and revenue from other operations.
LCL CORPORATION BHD [] which fell from grace after the Dubai financial crisis is presently looking for interested white knights which would be able to save the company.
Executive chairman Datuk Low Chin Meng said LCL had not found anyone suitable yet and has not given up on finding a saviour for the company adding that the white knight needs to be “financially sizeable” because of its huge debt problems.