Review & Outlook

Technical momentum have weakened somewhat following last week's failure of the FBM KLCI to sustain rise to a fresh 22-month high, which was followed by profit-taking pullback as investors reduced trading commitments given the short trading week. Further profit-taking consolidation is expected to persist pending fresh domestic leads to shore up trading sentiment. Meantime, on the global front, prevailing worries over potential for US interest rates to stay higher for longer given the stubbornly high inflation and increasing risk for geopolitical tensions in the Middle East to escalate should see investors remaining cautious.

Overhead resistance for the index remains at 1,580, with stronger upside hurdles seen at 1,600 and then 1,620. Immediate supports remain at 1,533 and 1,510, the respective rising 50-day and 100-day moving averages, with better support at 1,500.

As for the stock picks for the week, selected construction and oil & gas players such as Ekovest, IWCity, Bumi Armada, Dialog, DNEX, Hibiscus, Velesto and Wasco should attract bargain hunters given expectations for ongoing situational plays on the Johor property sector and elevated global oil prices due to heightened geopolitical risks in the Middle East.

News Bites

• Yinson Holdings Bhd's Singapore unit Yinson Production Offshore Pte Ltd is looking to raise up to USD500.0mn through a bond issuance.

• Capital A Bhd is in talks with investment bankers to assist in a private placement of new shares to raise between USD300.0mn to USD400.0mn to third-party investors who have yet to be identified, according to sources.

• Amanahraya Trustees Bhd, the trustee of Amanah Saham Bumiputera, reduced its stake in property developer S P Setia Bhd by selling 100.0mn shares on April 8, cutting its stake from 24.5% to 22.4%.

• Gamuda Land, the property arm of Gamuda Bhd, signed a memorandum of agreement with Kiddypedia, a prominent educational event company, to introduce Kiddypedia Discovery Centres at the developer's townships.

• XPENG Motors, a Chinese smart electric vehicle company, has expanded its footprint through a dealer partnership with Sime Darby Motors Sdn Bhd in Hong Kong.

• Bintulu Port Holdings Bhd will invest in a fully-integrated and state-ofthe-art port operating system for Bintulu Port.

• GDB Holdings Bhd is close to securing a sizeable contract from a Singapore-headquartered real estate investment trust manager to build a warehouse in Shah Alam, Selangor, according to market sources.

• Nextgreen Global Bhd's 55.0%-owned subsidiary, Nextgreen IOI Pulp Sdn Bhd has signed a MoU with Xiamen C&D Paper & Pulp Group Co. Ltd to establish a joint venture company for a paper pulp production facility in Green Technology Park, Pekan, Pahang.

• Bahvest Resources Bhd's subsidiary, Wullersdorf Resources Sdn Bhd, has obtained approval from the federal government's mining regulator, the Department of Mineral and Geoscience Malaysia, for its gold mining operations in Tawau, Sabah.

• Globetronics Technology Bhd is planning to move up the value chain by diversifying into advanced packaging to ride on the wave of rising demand for such services.

• Iconic Worldwide Bhd aims to return to the black in FY25, helped by its upcoming RM300.0mn gross development value Iconic Harmony development.

• Shipments from China slumped 7.5% YoY last month, marking the biggest fall since August last year and compared with a 2.3% decline forecast in a Reuters poll of economists.

• Singapore's GDP grew 0.1% in the quarter ended March from the prior three months, according to advance estimates Friday from the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

Source: TA Research - 15 Apr 2024