RHB Research downgrades construction sector to Neutral from Overweight

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 23): RHB Research Institute Sdn Bhd has downgraded its
recommendation for the CONSTRUCTION [] sector to Neutral from
Overweight.

In a note Friday, the research house said investors'
confidence and comfort level that the Klang Valley MRT project would
start work soon was being chipped away by further delays in the roll-out
of certain already long-overdue large-scale projects.

Even if
the Klang Valley MRT project is to start work as scheduled, initial
progress is likely to be painfully slow due to bureaucratic hurdles, it
said.

There is generally a lack of credible new large-scale projects in the pipeline, it said.

'Gamuda and Fajarbaru are downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform.

'No changes in Outperform for TRC, HSL and Eversendai, Trading Buy for
MRCB, Market Perform for WCT and Underperform for IJM,' said RHB
Research.