Penny stocks set to hog the limelight this week

BUYING momentum on penny stocks is expected to keep investors glued to Bursa Malaysia in the early part of the week, as the exchange itself may start to build a base to attempt a new record closing before the year ends.


The bourse's highest historic close was on October 24 this year, when it ended the trading day at 1,818.93 points.

Last Friday, Bursa Malaysia's benchmark index, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI), closed at 1,812.72 points, which places it within range for a final attempt this year to breach the 1,820 points-level.

Last week, 7.8 billion shares worth RM9.4 billion exchanged hands, compared with 6.7 billion shares valued at RM6.9 billion the week before.

Business Times has also found that Bursa Malaysia will launch a new trading platform - Bursa Trade Securities 2 (BTS2) - today.

The stock exchange operator last upgraded its trading platform for the securities market in 2008.

The hype surrounding the new system is largely because it is said to be able to provide a better facilitative trading environment via the new trading platform, which is 1,000 times faster in order/trade execution, and has 10 times higher trade processing capacity.

Ironically, the new trading system is poised to have its maiden run on the first trading day of December, which is also when market players, especially funds, will have to rejig their portfolios.

This is because the Securities Commission has introduced a revised syariah-compliant securities list, which will help Malaysia draw more investments from the Middle East.

The updated list, which took effect last Friday, will feature a total of 653 syariah-compliant securities, which constitute 71 per cent of the 914 listed securities on Bursa Malaysia.

The list includes 16 newly classified syariah-compliant securities and excludes 158 from the previous list issued in May.

On the micro level, stocks such as Sumatec Resources Bhd, XOX Bhd, and Iris Corp Bhd look set to steal the limelight in terms of being actively traded, while giant DRB-HICOM Bhd could be in the midst of a bull run of its own.

Previously, whenever DRB-HICOM shares were actively traded upwards, its call warrants had tended to be sought after by punters and retailers alike.

Last Friday, it rose 16 sen a share, after the company announced net profit rise of 71.07 per cent to RM137.97 million in the quarter ended September 30 2013, helped by improved sales at its automotive division, which mainly sells and distributes Proton cars.

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