march 6th - Stocks To Watch Genting, GenM, plantation counters, Asia Bio, Kinsteel, Minetech

KUALA LUMPUR (Mar 5): Based on news flow and corporate announcements up to 7pm today, the following companies may be in focus tomorrow.

Genting Bhd and Genting Malaysia Bhd may attract more interest tomorrow, following Singapore-listed Genting Hong Kong Ltd’s announcement today that it wants to sell the company's entire 31.35% stake in US-listed Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NCLH).

The stake is worth US$2.18 billion (RM7 billion) based on NCLH’s latest closing share price of US$33.83.

At market close today, Genting Bhd rose 15 sen to end at RM10.12 while Genting Malaysia rose by 4 sen to end at RM4.32.

In a statement to Singapore Exchange today, Genting Hong Kong Chairman and CEO Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay said the disposal was to unlock the value of its investment in NCLH.

Lim owns a controlling 57.82% stake in Genting Hong Kong, according to Bloomberg data. Genting Hong Kong, in turn, holds 31.35% stake in NCLH.

Genting Bhd is the parent company of Genting Hong Kong and Genting Malaysia Bhd.

Plantation counters may continue to grab the limelight after the bullish projections of world famous analysts on the price of crude palm oil (CPO) amid the current drought in palm oil producers Indonesia and Malaysia.

Crude palm oil futures rose sharply in afternoon trades today as the speakers gave their bullish forecasts on the last day of an international palm oil conference here.

At 3.47 pm, futures trades from March 2013 to May 2015 rose from RM27 to RM60 per tonne. The benchmark May futures rose RM60 to RM2,861 on trades of 11,514 lots, with open interest at 65,905. But the futures gave back substantial gains at market close.

Just after lunch break, Dr James Fry – a renowed speaker – said the CPO prices on Bursa Malaysia could rise to above RM3,000 and palm kernel oil at RM4,500, if Brent oil stays at $110.

Dorab Mistry projected CPO prices to hit a high of RM3,500 per tonne in his concluding remarks.

Asia Bioenergy Technologies Bhd (Asia Bio) has been issued an unusual market activity (UMA) query by Bursa Malaysia on the recent sharp drop in the price of its shares.

At 5pm market close, Asia Bio’s shares fell 1 sen or 9.52% to 9.5 sen, with some 107.6 million shares done.

Within the last two weeks, Asia Bio’s shares had plunged by 6.5 sen or 41% from 16 sen to today’s closing price of 9.5 sen.

Bursa Malaysia has ordered Asia Bio to make due enquiry with its directors, major shareholders and other relevant persons.

In an announcement to Bursa today, Asia Bio said Goldman Sachs International of London had informed Asia Bio on March 3 that it had sold 44,591,300 shares through the open market.

Kinsteel Bhd announced its chairman Tan Sri Pheng Yin Huah had bought 10 million of company shares on Feb 27 (last Thursday) on the open market.

As at Dec 31, the net asset per share of this financially beleaguered steel maker was 32 sen. The stock closed one sen down at 19 sen today.

Minetech Resources Berhad (MRB), one of the largest listed players in the quarry mining industry, today announced its plan to venture into the distribution of heavy machineries.

The company has established a new wholly-owned subsidiary known as Minetech Heavy Machineries Sdn Bhd to build and grow the heavy equipment business.

“We are very confident about venturing into the heavy machineries industry as a report by Industry Review has forecast that the construction equipment market itself in Malaysia will be worth almost RM1.46 billion (US$470 million) by 2015.

“This industry is also highly supported and boosted by our government initiatives such as the Third Industrial Master Plan (IMP3, 2006-2020) to position Malaysia as the regional production hub for high technology and specialized machinery and equipment (M&E), to be the main distribution centre in the region for all types of M&E and also the centre for maintenance,” said Chin Leong Choy, group executive director of MRB.