Written by Lam Jian Wyn
Friday, 30 April 2010 07:44
KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips on Bursa Malaysia could chalk up mild gains on Friday, April 30, as sentiment is underpinned by the stronger overnight close on Wall Street but the broader market could put up a lacklustre performance as investors are generally not keen to take up fresh positions ahead of the weekend.
On Wall Street, U.S. stocks chalked up their best day in nearly two months on Thursday as investors welcomed a string of robust earnings reports, while Greece appeared close to a bailout deal, easing fears about a wider sovereign debt crisis, according to Reuters.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 122.05 points, or 1.10 percent, to 11,167.32; the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 15.42 points, or 1.29 percent, to 1,206.78. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 40.19 points, or 1.63 percent, to 2,511.92.
Stocks to watch are MULTI-PURPOSE HOLDINGS BHD [] (MPHB) , NOTION VTEC BHD [], Berjaya Corp Bhd and SCOMI GROUP BHD [].
The put option undertaken by Multi-Purpose Holdings Bhd (MPHB) to purchase a 41.63% stake in U Mobile Sdn Bhd comprising 157.95 million shares for RM280 million has been terminated, the group said.
Earlier this month, the group had purchased a 2.37% stake in U Mobile representing 18 million shares from Detik Ria Sdn Bhd for RM54 million cash, to be financed via internal funds. This acquisition, along with a one-for-one rights issue, had boosted MPHB's shareholding in U Mobile to 6.33%.
Notion VTec Bhd's earnings jumped 165% to RM12.25 million in the second quarter ended March 31 from RM4.61 million a year ago and it also proposed to place out 10% of its paid-up share capital to raise RM46.06 million and also issue free warrants.
It reported revenue doubled to RM56.71 million from RM28.24 million. Earnings per share were 8.06 sen versus 3.27 sen.
Berjaya Corporation proposed a special single-tier cash dividend of 4.5 sen per share and a restricted offer for sale (ROS) of up to HK$491.57 million (RM202.14 million) irredeemable convertible unsecured loan securities (CCL ICULS) in Hong Kong-listed Cosway Corporation Ltd (CCL) to its shareholders at nine sen each.
BCorp shareholders will be offered one CCL ICULS of HK$0.20 each for every two BCorp shares held and they can use the special cash dividend to take up their ROS entitlement, without having to come up with any additional cash. The special dividend could total RM221.2 million assuming all outstanding BCorp ICULS were converted.
Scomi Group's oilfield services business, which specialises in drilling fluids, drilling waste management and production and environmental TECHNOLOGY [] projects, secured contracts totalling RM60.55 million in the region in the first quarter (1Q) of this year.Scomi said in the first three months this year, its oilfield services business bagged the contracts for projects in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. Order book of the oilfield service business stood at RM1.2 billion as at Dec 31 last year.
In the first quarter, its subsidiary, Scomi Sosma Sdn Bhd was awarded a two-year contract extension valued at RM21.35 million for the provision of integrated production chemicals supply and services for an established oil and gas company in Malaysia.
PLUS Expressways is confident of a strong performance for its financial year ending Dec 31, 2010 (FY10) due to continuing growth in traffic volume.
Its managing director, Noorizah Abd Hamid, said the company expected to record a 3%-4% rise in traffic on its highways in FY10, which would translate into growth in toll collection. PLUS also said it had recorded a traffic volume growth of 9.1% up to March this year.