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.
Reiterate OUTPERFORM with unchanged target price (TP) of RM4.00 Macquarie Equities Research (MQ Research) released a research note on AirAsia, following a meeting with the group’s CEO, reiterating their outperform rating and keeping their price target at RM4.00. Event MQ Research reiterates their outperform rating on AirAsia with an unchanged target price of RM4.00 (+34% total shareholder return) following a meeting with Malaysia CEO, Aireen Omar. Key takeaways include: 1) strong demand supporting its reaccelerated growth for the Malaysia entity in 2017, 2) on track for leasing monetisation this year with a guided US$900mn–1.2bn valuation and 3) ramping up initiatives to boost ancillary income given unsatisfactory performance so far. With the potential for a special dividend accruing from the leasing portfolio monetisation, AirAsia remains one of MQ Research’s top picks in the Asian airline space. The stock trades at a 7.3x 20...