Stocks to watch: Mitrajaya, CIMB, Ajiya, Unico

KUALA LUMPUR: After two days of foreign selling on the local stock market, which saw the FBM KLCI declining a cumulative 21.6 points as of Tuesday, July 19, investors could generally stay on the sidelines on Wednesday.

As of Tuesday, there was a dearth of strong corporate news to excite investors and to underpin market sentiment.

Attempts to prop up the FBM KLCI failed on Tuesday, with the 30-stock index falling 6.94 points to 1,555.64 towards the close. The selling was not very heavy in terms of volume but what was evident was the stocks affected were those held by foreign funds like KLK, DiGi and CIMB.

Perhaps stocks to watch include MITRAJAYA HOLDINGS BHD [], CIMB Group Bhd, AJIYA BHD [], Unico Desa PLANTATION []s Bhd and SCOMI GROUP BHD [].

Mitrajaya secured a RM13.51 million contract to build a freshwater laboratory complex at Tasik Chini in Pekan, Pahang.

Its unit Pembinaan Mitrajaya Sdn Bhd accepted the letter of acceptance of contract from the East Coast Economic Region Development Council to build phase one of the laboratory.

CIMB Thai Bank Public Company Ltd posted net profit of 536.4 million baht (RM54 million) in the first half ended June 30, 2011.

Total operating income was 3.2 billion baht, underpinned by net interest income and fee and service income.

CIMB Thai Bank president and chief executive officer Subhak Siwaraksa said the group operating results for 1H showed a 24.9% decline in net profit to 536.4 million baht, from 714.0 million a year ago.

However, he explained in 2010, there was special revenue recognised including gains from disposal of Sathorn building in 1Q2010 and CIMB-Principal Asset Management in 2Q10.

“Should we exclude these items, profit should increase 160%,” he said.

The US State Department has lifted the sanctions which were imposed on Scomi Group Bhd group chief executive officer Shah Hakim Zain, with effect from July 18, Monday.

Ajiya’s net profit for the second quarter ended May 31, 2011 rose 13.68% to RM7.23 million from RM6.36 million a year earlier on the back of a higher turnover for the period.

Its revenue rose 15.5% to RM100.95 million from RM87.39 million in 2010, due mainly to better market sentiment. Earnings per share were 10.41 sen, while net assets per share were RM2.95.

For the six months ended May 31, however, Ajiya’s net profit fell to RM10.55 million from RM12.01 million despite posting revenue RM181.72 million compared to RM164.04 million a year earlier.

UNICO-DESA PLANTATIONS BHD [] has proposed to distribute shares in its unit ELK-Desa Resources to all shareholders on a one-for-10 basis under a corporate exercise which would involve in the listing of ELK-Desa.

Unico-Desa said on Tuesday, July 19 it had also proposed a restricted offer for sale of the remaining shares in ELK-Desa after the proposed distribution.

It also proposed to list ELK-Desa on the Main Market of Bursa Securities.

“The proposed distribution would involve a distribution of approximately 86.506 million ELK-Desa Resources shares representing approximately 86.51% equity interest in ELK-Desa Resources to Unico-Desa shareholders,” it said.

SALCON BHD [] has decided not to go ahead with its proposed water supply scheme in West Java, Indonesia.

Its unit Salcon Engineering Bhd decided not to proceed with the project after the detailed studies and discussions for the scheme for Kecamatan Cikarang Barat and Citibung in Kabupaten Bekasi.