KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 19 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia gave up earlier gains to end mixed today, amid a higher regional market showing, as property, construction, and healthcare counters attracted buying interests, while plantation, banking, and telecommunication stocks saw some profit-taking, an analyst said. At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 1.70 points to close at 1,602.34 from yesterday’s close of 1,604.04. The benchmark index, which opened 0.86 of-a-point lower at 1,603.18, moved between 1,601.02 and 1,608.88 during the trading session. However, the broader market was mixed to higher, with gainers leading decliners by 565 to 438 while 502 counters remained unchanged, 961 untraded, and 14 suspended. Turnover narrowed to 2.83 billion units valued at RM2.08 billion versus 2.96 billion units valued at RM2.23 billion yesterday. Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the benchmark index remained range-bound and it required a dec
Maintain outperform recommendation with an unchanged target price (TP) of RM0.90 Bumi Armada’s (BAB) 9MFY16 revenue fell to RM1.2bn (-23.9% YoY), with a net loss of RM591.6m (->100.0% YoY). Excluding the RM597.6m impairment predominantly provided for Armada Claire, core earnings would be RM85.5m (-62.5% YoY). Below expectations, BAB’s earnings only met 30.0% and 48.9% of ours and consensus’ estimates. Revenue remained weaker YoY with the completion of conversion activities for Kraken and ENI 1506 FPSOs, coupled with lower contribution from Armada Claire, Armada Perdana and Armada Perkasa, albeit partly offset by higher contribution from LukOil in the Caspian Sea. EBITDA, in the same trend, was lower by 36.7% YoY. Average OSV utilisation rate maintained at 55% however. BAB’s performance was in a lull, but going forward we are expecting a boost in earnings from the 4 major FPSO & FGS contributions, seeing first oil and/or gas in 2017. We retain our Outperform recom