KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 8 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia closed almost flat on Tuesday as buying interest rotated away from index heavyweights towards smaller-cap construction stocks, with sentiment affected by geopolitical uncertainty, said an analyst. At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 0.39 of a point to 1,714.40 from Monday’s close of 1,714.79. The benchmark index opened 1.65 points lower at 1,713.14 and moved between 1,710.44 and 1,714.50 throughout the trading session. The broader market was almost evenly balanced, with decliners leading gainers 548 to 546, while 598 counters were unchanged, 1,107 were untraded and 25 were suspended. Turnover expanded to 4.13 billion units valued at RM3.14 billion from 3.60 billion units valued at RM2.45 billion on Monday.
Highlights The absence of pricing premium (as a result of demand weakness), coupled with rising transportation cost to the Middle East (as transportation costs are borne by Evergreen), management has started diverting its marketing efforts from the Middle East back to the Southeast Asian region. Despite the ASP pressure for MDF products, we continue to see strong earnings prospects in the company. Renewed weakness in MYR against the US$ arising from more hawkish Fed and lackluster domestic market outlook is a boon to Evergreen’s earnings. Costs of key inputs (i.e. rubber log wood and glue) continue to trend lower, and these will partly alleviate margin pressure from lower ASP. Evergreen is on track to reap more benefits from its cost rationalization exercise. The new RTA furniture line has commenced commercial operations since May-16. Having convinced about the potential of the RTA furniture business, Evergreen has placed deposits for an additional RTA furniture...