Written by Joseph Chin
Saturday, 06 February 2010 20:44
KUALA LUMPUR: Investors are expected to stay cautious in the new week starting Feb 8 after the sharp fall over the week, spurred by worries about fiscal problems in Europe and China's curb liquidity in the market.
On Wall Street, US stocks ended slightly higher on Friday on some mild bargain hunting after a volatile week. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 0.10% at 10,012.23, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index ended up 0.29% at 1,066.19 and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.74% to close at 2,141.12.
At Bursa Malaysia, stocks to watch this week include SCOMI MARINE BHD [], LATEXX PARTNERS BHD [], PROTON HOLDINGS BHD [], CSC Steel Bhd and GULA PERAK BHD [].
Scomi Marine would reap S$61.5 million when it sells its 29.07% stake in SIngapore listed CH Offshore Ltd to Falcon Energy Group Ltd for S$143.5 million.
Scomi Marine's original cost of investment in CH Offshore was S$82.0 million on Sept 30, 2005.
Latexx Partners' net profit in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2009 jumped 157% to RM17.27 million from RM6.72 million a year ago, underpinned by recent capacity expansion, aggressive marketing strategy and overall cost savings. Group revenue rose 47.1% to RM102.84 million while pre-tax profit jumped 159% to RM17.39 million.
Proton has finally won its battle against its former joint venture partner China-based Goldstar Heavy Industrial Co. Ltd.
Proton's unit Proton Automobiles (China) Ltd was found by the tribunal to have acted in good faith in terminating a JV contract with Goldstar, which was signed in June 2002, wherein Goldstar was to have secured a manufacturing licence to amnufacture vehicles.
Goldstar had then sought about one billion yuan (RM520 million) in compensation from the lawsuit.
CSC Steel posted 4Q net profit of RM37.11 million versus net loss of RM 42.08 million a year ago.
RHB Research Institute, which had issued a report ahead of CSC's earnings, had earlier upgraded its earnings forecasts while its indicative fair value was raised by 23.1% from RM1.64 to RM2.02 based on 9.0 times revised FY12/10 EPS of 22.4 sen.
Malaysian Rating Corp downgraded the rating of DUTALAND BHD []'s outstanding RM50.66 million redeemable unsecured loan stocks (RULS) to B from BB-. The outlook on the rating is negative.
MARC also revised its rating outlook on OLYMPIA INDUSTRIES BHD []'s outstanding RM85.86 million nominal value RULS to negative from stable.
Gula Perak has proposed a share capital reduction of its paid-up of RM322.19 million comprising 644.39 million 50 sen shares. It proposed to cancel 40 sen of the par value and reduce it to 10 sen each.
The board proposed the share capital account be reduced by RM257.76 million and the credit arising to reduce the company's accumulated losses.
