KUALA LUMPUR, July 29 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia rebounded to close higher on Wednesday on selective buying of defensive stocks after a volatile trading session. IPPFA Sdn Bhd director of investment strategy and country economist Mohd Sedek Jantan said consumer products and services stocks lifted the key index higher, overcoming lingering geopolitical concerns. At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 3.08 points to 1,715.56 from yesterday’s close of 1,712.48. The benchmark index, which opened 1.91 points higher at 1,714.39, moved between 1,710.79 and 1,720.59 during the day’s trading. In the broader market, gainers outstripped decliners 550 to 476, while 612 counters were unchanged, 1,129 untraded, and 48 suspended. Turnover rose to 2.96 billion units valued at RM2.48 billion from 2.94 billion units valued at RM2.56 billion on Tuesday.
Maintain BUY recommendation with target price (TP) of RM3.77 Results GKent reported 3QFY17 results with revenue of RM122.1m (-26% QoQ, +26% YoY) and core earnings of RM23.7m (+27% QoQ, 3QFY16: RM0.4m). The significant YoY earnings increase for the quarter was due to a low base witnessed last year due to cost of variation orders (VOs) incurred (but this was subsequently recognised in 4QFY16). Cumulative 9M core earnings (ex. forex) totalled RM58.2m, surging almost 3-folds YoY. This strong growth was attributed to (i) 51% revenue increase, (ii) PBT margin expansion from 10% to 18.3% and (iii) lower base last year due to a weak 3Q as earlier elaborated. Deviation 9M earnings made up 94% of our full year forecast which is above our expectation. The surprise results were due to (i) stronger-than-expected engineering margins given continued VO works for the LRT extension and (ii) higher- than-projected JV contribution associated with LRT3 PDP. Dividends A 2nd ...