Stocks to watch: Three-A, Green Packet, Proton, Notion VTec

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips may regain ground on Friday, Oct 23 after the firmer close on Wall Street while investors would also keep a close watch on the Budget 2010 proposals to be unveiled by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak at 4pm.

Investors will be watching out for the winners and losers stemming from the proposals of the Budget.

The sectors to watch out for would be in the real estate investment trusts (REIT), brewery, tobacco and property sectors, as well as the auto sector.

Overnight, Wall Street rose on solid earnings from several companies, including Dow components 3M, AT&T and McDonald's Corp which lent credence to the idea that corporate profitability has stabilised.

Quarterly results from insurer Travelers and regional bank PNC Financial gave a boost to financial stocks.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 131.95 points, or 1.33 percent, to 10,081.31. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 11.51 points, or 1.06 percent, to 1,092.91. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 14.56 points, or 0.68 percent, to 2,165.29.

At Bursa, stocks to watch are THREE-A RESOURCES BHD [], GREEN PACKET BHD [], PROTON HOLDINGS BHD [] and NOTION VTEC BHD [].

Three-A Resources' net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2009 (3QFY09) doubled to RM5.89 million from RM2.99 million on the back of higher revenue.

Revenue rose 14.5% to RM45.14 million from RM39.43 million a year ago. Earnings per share was 1.91 sen against 0.97 sen.

Green Packet Bhd may see trading interest as it is set to secure a WiMAX broadband licence in Singapore. It inked a deal with Singapore-based Pacnet Internet Corp(S) Pte Ltd to transfer its facilities-based operator’s licence and wireless broadband access spectrum rights to the former.

Proton Holdings Bhd is confident of achieving annual sales of 155,000 units by March 2010.
Proton Edar Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Mohamad Shukor Ibrahim said for the six months ended Sept 30, car sales exceeded an initial target of 73,000 units.

He said car buyers were starting to notice the improvements in Proton's products and service quality, especially "hot" selling models like the Persona, Saga and Exora.

Notion VTec proposed a private placement of up to 10% of its paid-up at an issue price to be determined later, to fund its factory expansion in Thailand.

It plans to issue up to 14.07 million new shares of 50 sen each. Assuming the placement shares were issued at an illustrative price of RM2.38 per share, a 5% discount to its theoretical NVB post-share consolidation exercise price of RM2.50, the exercise was expected to raise RM33.49 million.