Business & Markets 2012
Written by Surin Murugiah of theedgemalaysia.com
Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:51
KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 11): The FBM KLCI could extend its gains on Wednesday for a seventh day running, its longest positive streak since Oct 2 of this year, albeit the gains could be capped by new worries arising from the eurozone that kept global investors on tenterhooks.
Asian shares edged up to a 16-month high on Tuesday and the euro firmed, but prices were capped as investors waited for the US Federal Reserve's policy decision this week and any progress in US budget talks, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, European shares and Italian bonds edged lower on Tuesday as political turmoil in Italy weighed on confidence, but moves were subdued as investors waited for German confidence data later and the US Federal Reserve's end of year meeting, it said.
Markets were rattled on Monday by Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti's announcement he would step down early, and the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 share index dipped 0.1% as trading resumed with concern continuing to weigh, said Reuters.
Among the stocks that could be in focus on Bursa Malaysia on Wednesday are BERJAYA SPORTS TOTO BHD [] (BToto); S P Setia Bhd; DSC Solutions Bhd; and Maxis Bhd.
BToto has received a conditional eligibility-to-list (ETL) letter from the SGX-ST for the listing of its wholly-owned Sports Toto Malaysia Trust (STM-Trust) on the Mainboard of the SGX-ST.
In a filing to Bursa Malaysia Securities on Tuesday, Maybank Investment Bank Bhd (Maybank IB) on behalf of BToto said that STM-Trust had on Dec 10 received the conditional ETL.
S P Setia is slated to announce its financial results on Dec 12 for the financial year ended Oct 31, 2012 (FY10/12).
Maybank IB Research in a note Tuesday had said that it expects S P Setia's 4Q net profit of RM101 million-RM108 million, taking FY10/12 core earnings to RM368 million-RM375 million.
The research house said that S P Setia's Earnings will likely be driven by strong unbilled sales mainly from its township projects in Johor and Setia Alam.
"We expect S P Setia to declare a final gross dividend per share (DPS) of 8.6 sen, lifting full-year DPS to 13.6 sen," it said.
Bursa Malaysia Securities has queried DSC Solutions over the unusual market activity (UMA) in the trading of the company's shares.
It said on Tuesday that the query was regarding the sharp rise in the price of the securities of the company recently.
Following the UMA query by Bursa Securities, DSC Solutions said it was unaware of the cause of the sharp rise in the price and high volume of the shares.
In reply to the UMA query on Tuesday, DSC Solutions said after due inquiry with its directors and major shareholders, it was unaware of its cause, adding there was no corporate development relating to its business and affairs that had not been previously announced which could have accounted for it, including those at the stage of negotiations or discussions.
It was also unaware of any other possible explanation to account for the UMA, with the exception it had on Dec 2 announced a delay in the issuance of its quarterly financial report for the fourth quarter ended Sept 30, 2012.
It said that subsequently on Dec 6, it had released its financial result for the quarter in question, in which it had reported a pre-tax loss of RM210,000 for the unaudited financial results ended Sept 30, 2012, as compared to the audited pre-tax loss of RM4.95 million for the preceding corresponding year ended Sept 30, 2011.
Maxis said it has allocated RM500 million over the next three years to activate 4G LTE services after it was allocated the 2600 MHz spectrum band for 4G LTE by Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) last week.
In a statement Tuesday, its chief executive officer Sandip Das said the grant of 4G LTE spectrum by MCMC was an important milestone in the country's telecom journey, heralding the introduction of super high speed data networks using LTE (Long Term Evolution) TECHNOLOGY [].
He said that Maxis was the first telco in Malaysia to complete extensive LTE field trials.