Written by Loong Tse Min
Tuesday, 13 April 2010 08:11
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KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips should get a boost again on Tuesday, April 13 after the Dow industrials closed above 11,000 for the first time in almost 19 months on Monday.
Expectations of solid first-quarter earnings spurred buying in financial, energy and industrial sectors, despite some reservations that stock prices already reflect lofty expectations for first-quarter results, with both the Dow and the S&P 500 near 19-month highs, according to Reuters.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 8.62 points, or 0.08 percent, to 11,005.97 -- its highest close since September 2008. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index climbed 2.11 points, or 0.18 percent, to 1,196.48. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 3.82 points, or 0.16 percent, to 2,457.87.
S&P 500 is up 76.9 percent since hitting bottom in March 2009
On Bursa Malaysia, the FBM KLCI futures showed more optimism, closing up six points to 1,346.
Stocks to watch on Tuesday include MALAYSIAN RESOURCES CORP [] Bhd (MRCB) EON CAPITAL BHD [], TALAM CORPORATION BHD [], DRB-HICOM BHD [] and TAN CHONG MOTOR HOLDINGS BHD [].
Also in focus would be PETRA PERDANA BHD [], Minply Holdings, POS MALAYSIA BHD [] and MALAYSIAN AIRLINE SYSTEM BHD [].
MRCB would continue to see trading interest. The offer period is drawing close with the first closing date at 5pm on Wednesday, which is 21 days after the posting date of the offer letter.
AmInvestment Bank Bhd, the independent adviser to the minority shareholders, recently advised minority shareholders to reject the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) offer
EON Capital Bhd withdrew an earlier proposed 10 sen tax-exempt dividend for its 2009 fiscal year, after HONG LEONG BANK BHD [] raised its offer on April 1 to acquire its assets and liabilities for a total of RM5.06 billion or RM7.30 per share.
Talam wants to sell five parcels of land measuring 1,322.44 acres (535.17ha) to settle the balance of its debt amounting to RM150.62 million to Menteri Besar Selangor Incorporated.
However, there is still an overhang of Talam shares, as KUMPULAN EUROPLUS BHD [] has been selling its Talam stake, which could cap any significant upside in its share price.
The latest filing to Bursa Malaysia showed KEuro sold 2.1 million Talam shares on April 5 to repay the loan interest to the financier. This reduced KEuro’s stake in Talam to 644.15 million shares or 26.32%.
In DRB-Hicom, Khazanah Nasional Bhd disposed of 2.07 million shares from April 6 to 9, reducing its stake to 102.05 million.
In PLUS, the Employees Provident Fund Board had been reducing its stake in the highway concessionaire with the recent disposal of 3.29 million shares in March, reducing its stake to 12.11% or 605.33 million shares.
Tan Chong group would continue to see trading interest after the recent upgrades by research houses, the impact of the stronger ringgit and its overseas forays.
Petra Perdana has secured two vessel financing packages totalling US$52.5 million (RM168.5 million) that will cover three vessels, which will be delivered over the course of this year.
Analysts are still optimistic on Pos Malaysia despite being told by the national mail carrier in a briefing last week that they may have been overly bullish in their forecasts.
Pos Malaysia had told analysts it may have not fully taken into consideration discounts on bulk mail to cushion the impact of a sharp contraction in mail volume, despite staff costs for the year being lower than expected as the new salary scheme would only take effect in July 1.
Pos Malaysia had on April 6 announced that it would be raising its postal rates by 75% to 100% from July 1 onwards.
MAS was slapped by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) with a charge of breaching competition law with regard to the carrier’s airfreight fuel and security surcharges.
An aviation analyst told The Edge Financial Daily that the ACCC investigation was not really a new development but a follow-up on a similar investigation being conducted by the US government.
MAS was on Feb 16 this year served a notice of The US District Court for the Eastern District of New York filing a complaint regarding alleged price fixing related to airfreight shipping services against MAS and 11 other defendants.