Stocks to watch: Pos Malaysia, HELP, TA Enterprise, Maybulk

KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI posted six straight days of gains last Friday, March 25, with the FBM KLCI up 0.77% or 11.66 points to 1,515.55 following the recent aftermath of the Japan earthquake and the on-going Mid-East turmoil but trading is expected to be lacklustre in the week ahead.

On Friday, Wall Street advanced for a third straight day, giving the S&P its best weekly performance since early February, but volume remained light as global uncertainty persisted.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 50.03 points, or 0.41%, to 12,220.59. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 4.14 points, or 0.32%, to 1,313.80. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 6.64 points, or 0.24%, to 2,743.06.

For the week, the Dow gained 3.1%, the S&P climbed 2.7% and the Nasdaq advanced 3.8%.

As for Bursa Malaysia, overall trading has been lacklustre and gains restrained also on concerns of high oil price, rising food prices and the impact on inflation, which is forecast to climb between 2.5% and 3.5% this year.

Malaysia’s consumer price index rose 2.9% in February 2011 from a year ago as prices for food & non-alcoholic beverages and non-food rose. The CPI rose 0.5% from January. For the period of January-February, the CPI rose 2.7% from the previous corresponding period.

The index for food & non-alcoholic beverages and non-food for the month of February 2011 showed increases of 4.7% and 2.1% respectively as compared to the same month in 2010.

While the market has managed to eke out marginal gains, investors are expected to nibble on selected stocks with on-going news, including RHB Capital and companies which announced their results including HELP INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION [] Bhd and TA ENTERPRISE BHD.

Companies like POS MALAYSIA BHD, MALAYSIAN BULK CARRIERS BHD and PACIFICMAS BHD would see trading interest after declaring dividends.

Pos Malaysia declared dividends totaling 17.5 sen for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2010.

PacificMas announced a windfall, with an interim dividend of RM1.398 per share less 25% income tax (net RM1.0485 per share) and single tier dividend of 30 sen per share (tax exempt) for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2011.

Maybulk declared a final single tier dividend of 10 sen per share for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2010. The dividend would be paid on May 6 this year.