Stocks to watch: Astro, Dialog, Tenaga, Seacera Tiles

Written by Loong Tse Min
Thursday, 08 October 2009 07:32

KUALA LUMPUR: Stocks on Bursa Malaysia are expected to be firmer on Thursday, Oct 8 in the absence of any negative external or domestic factors while on Wall Street, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices rose.

The better close on Wall Street was investors' positive response to early earnings results as the quarterly reporting period got under way.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 5.67 points, or 0.06 percent, at 9,725.58. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 2.86 points, or 0.27 percent, at 1,057.58. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 6.76 points, or 0.32 percent, at 2,110.33.

Stocks to watch on Bursa are ASTRO ALL ASIA NETWORKS PLC [], TENAGA NASIONAL BHD [], DIALOG GROUP BHD [], SEACERA TILES BHD [], FOCUS DYNAMICS TECHNOLOGIES [] Bhd, AJIYA BHD [] and HARBOUR-LINK GROUP BHD [].

Astro paid over US$250 million (RM855 million) to keep its exclusive rights to broadcast the 2010/2013 English Premier League (EPL) in Malaysia, as competition caused the price to double from the previous bidding in 2006, sources close to the company said.

Tenaga is being sued for RM106.89 million jointly by Irham Niaga Sdn Bhd (INSB) and Irham Niaga Logistics Sdn Bhd (INLSB). However, Tenaga said "this suit filed against TNB is without merit as the claim involves an ongoing legal dispute with TNB’s subsidiary, TNB Transmission Network Sdn Bhd (TNBT)".

The dispute between TNBT and the two parties dates back to 2005 when the former filed an arbitration proceeding for restitution of all rentals, warehouse management and other payments made to INSB and INLSB under five-year tenancy agreements.

Dialog proposed a special share dividend of one treasury share for every 50 shares held, amounting to 27.71 million treasury shares, to be distributed for the financial year ended June 30, 2009.

The proposed special share dividend was to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the incorporation of the Dialog group of companies. The entitlement date has yet to be fixed.

Seacera Tiles received a RM7.3 million contract from Ahmad Zaki Sdn Bhd for granite and tile works for the Dataran Putra building in Putrajaya. Seacera said works is expected to commence in November 2009, with completion by end 2011.

Focus Dynamics Technologies Bhd has fixed the issue price for its first tranche of 15 million placement shares at 10 sen each.

The issue price is 1.28% below to the five-day volume-weighted average market price of Focus’ shares, up to and including Oct 6, of 10.13 sen per share.

Based on the issue price of 10 sen per placement share and the 15 million shares offered, the company is expected to raise gross proceeds of RM1.5 million.

Ajiya Bhd posted a net profit of RM7.5 million for the third quarter (3Q) ended Aug 31, 2009, up 6% from RM7.04 million a year earlier, due to an increase in sales of higher value-added products.

However, overall revenue fell 4% drop to RM83.01 million in 3Q09 from RM86.98 million, which the company attributed to the current weak market conditions.

Harbour-Link Group Bhd has proposed a first and final dividend of 2 sen per share for the financial year ended June 30, 2009 (FY09). The Sarawak-based shipper and freight forwarder saw higher margins in FY09 posting a marginal drop in net profit of 0.5% to RM26.2 million as revenue fell 5.2% to RM327.6 million.