Stocks to watch: Plantations, banks, Bolton, Gamuda, WCT

KUALA LUMPUR: Stocks on Bursa Malaysia are expected to resume their upward trend on Wednesday, March 10 as sentiment is underpinned by the firmer overnight close on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 11.86 points, or 0.11 percent, to 10,564.38. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index edged up 1.95 points, or 0.17 percent, to 1,140.45. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 8.47 points, or 0.36 percent, to 2,340.68.

According to Reuters, one year ago, the economic crisis dragged stocks to their lowest in more than 12 years. The S&P 500 is up 68.5 percent since then --the strongest one-year rally since 1936, but still 27.6 percent below its all-time high.

Stocks to watch on Bursa Malaysia are PLANTATION []s, banks, Bolton, GAMUDA BHD [] and WCT BHD []. Other counters include TELEKOM MALAYSIA BHD [] (TM), Ho Hup CONSTRUCTION [] Co Bhd, KESM INDUSTRIES BHD [] and KULIM (M) BHD [].

Plantations could see rising interest on expectations of higher crude palm oil prices in the second half as output could be affected by the on-going hot weather due to the El Nino.

Prominent industry analyst Dorab Mistry expects crude palm oil (CPO) futures to trade between RM2,600 and RM2,800 per tonne for the period from March to July 2010 and even more bullishly in the second half of the year.

BOLTON BHD [] will launch residential and retail projects around the Klang Valley this year and the estimated gross development value (GDV) is about RM1 billion.

Banks, which retreated on Tuesday after surging the previous day, could see renewed interest if investors remain convinced the upward trend for the market will continued.

The Gamuda-WCT joint venture in Qatar has been served with a request for arbitration by Bahrain Asphalt Establishment BSC following a claim totalling QAR109.27 million (RM101.06 million).

In Ho Hup, the party linked to deputy executive chairman Datuk Vincent Lye has filed for an injunction to block an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) scheduled for March 17, according to sources.

Telekom Malaysia, which is set to launch its triple play retail service bundle by month's end, is open to leasing capacity from other players to deliver its high-speed broadband (HSBB) services, should such arrangements make commercial sense.

KESM’s 2Q net profit for the period ended Jan 31, surged by 283% year-on-year to RM2.6 million from RM678,000. Revenue rose to RM55.9 million from RM39.3 million.

KESM said the improvement was due to higher demand for testing and electronic manufacturing services. There was also improvement in its subsidiary in Tianjin, China which has started contributing positively to the group, it added.

Kulim will dispose of its investment property, Menara Ansar in Johor Bahru, for RM105 million to the Al-‘Aqar REIT. It will receive RM63 million cash the remaining in 42.9 million new units of Al-‘Aqar KPJ Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) at 98 sen per unit.