• Lacklustre market

Over the last two weeks, the KLSE Construction Index ended largely unchanged with a marginal gain of 0.8%. This has been mirrored by the flattish movement in big-cap construction stocks. However, mid-cap Sunway Holdings rose 3.7% while small-cap Muhibbah lost 6.1%. On notable major shareholders’ filings, institutional investors were seen accumulating Gamuda while IJM Corp and Muhibbah continued to see selling pressure. Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has acquired 3.7 million shares in Gamuda while Skim Amanah Saham Bumiputra added 5.5 million shares. EPF sold 4.7 million shares in IJM Corp and 0.3 million shares in Muhibbah.

• Notable construction news

The widely expected RM649 million Besraya highway extension job to be undertaken by IJM Corp is close to fruition as the federal government has agreed to the estimated project cost as well as variation to the terms of the highway concession following the closure of the Salak Jaya toll plaza a year ago. On the other hand, things are not as rosy for Gamuda in terms of contract replenishment. According to media report, Loh & Loh is believed to have submitted the lowest bid for the Hulu Terengganu dam project, valued at RM1.2 billion. Gamuda is the only other bidder shortlisted for the job. More dam building jobs are in the pipeline as Sarawak plans to build five more hydro-electric dams, with a combined power capacity of more than 3,000MW, over the next five years. The five new dams are Alleh (1,400MW), Pelagus (410MW), Baram (1,200MW), Limbang (245MW) and Lawas (100MW).

Small-cap Gadang Holdings, which has been in the limelight of late due to several contracts win, announced on Feb 10 proposal to raise a minimum of RM25 million via a 2-for-3 two-call rights issue. However, this does not seem to have gone down well with investors as share price has been down 8.8% since then.

• Contracts awarded

Contracts worth RM312.4 million have been awarded over the last two weeks. WCT was the main beneficiary as it secured additional works for its Bahrain City Centre Hotel fit out jobs worth RM221 million.

• Maintain NEUTRAL

Valuation of construction stocks are no longer compelling as the expected award of mega projects in the coming months have largely been factored into existing earnings model. The sector mid-term outlook depends very much on the 10MP, which will be unveiled in June 2010. As such, we maintain our neutral stance on the construction sector and advise investors to take profit on news flow of jobs win. Our top pick for the sector is Sunway Holdings which is trading at undemanding forward PE of 7.2x.