KLSE Top 10 Picks for Year 2008

The 10 picks are:

Sime Darby Bhd. This is the largest player in the must-have sector of plantations.
TA said Sime Darby was an excellent proxy to the plantation sector, given its fairly good sensitivity to the upstream plantation business, which is the most profitable part of the palm oil value chain. “We estimate a RM100 per tonne increase in crude palm oil (CPO) price would boost Sime Darby's earnings per share by 3%,” TA said, adding that any further earnings upgrade could stem from the group's successful extraction of merger synergy.

IOI Corp Bhd. IOI Corp is the second largest plantation counter by market capitalisation after Sime Darby. Half of its operating profit for the financial year ended June 30, 2007 was derived from the upstream plantation business.
“A key catalyst for upgrade in earnings forecast is potential acquisitions. The group has been on a merger and acquisition trail, acquiring land in Sarawak and Indonesia,” said TA.

British American Tobacco (M) Bhd. This stock is on the “buy” list of Citigroup. The consensus 6% to 8% contraction in market is too pessimistic, said Citigroup head of Malaysia research Wai Kee Choong. The counter could surprise from a hike in civil servants' pay.

Public Bank Bhd. In the banking sector, this stock is on the list of Citigroup, Aseambankers and TA.
TA said: “As capital ratios are expected to improve due to the adoption of Basel II (international banking guidelines on capital requirements) by early 2008 and no mandatory transfer of 25% annual earning to statutory reserves, the group will have some leeway to improve its capital management.”
The management has also given its guidance that the bank's risk-weighted capital ratio and capital adequacy ratio are expected to improve by 70- and 50-basis points, respectively.
Citigroup likes the counter for its strong growth in business loans and asset management business as well its dividend yield of 5% to 7%.

SapuraCrest Petroleum Bhd. At the current price, oil and gas services player SapuraCrest still has plenty of upside. While the share price has corrected some 41%, its fundamentals remain intact, said Citigroup. SapuraCrest's order book now stands at more than RM5bil.

Petra Perdana Bhd. This oil and gas sector play looks like good value at the current price.
TA's pick has outperformed earnings expectations in the recent results season due to a higher vessel utilisation of 85% and charter rates that are 10% to 15% higher as the company rolled over spot contracts that have expired.
“This is likely to be the order of the day with demand for vessels shooting up following greater exploration and production activities but hampered by tight supply,” said TA.
Future growth potential is bright, with 17 more new vessels coming on stream by 2010 and most of the vessels tailored for deepwater operations, said the research house.

PLUS Expressways Bhd. In the infrastructure sector, TA likes highway concessionaire PLUS, whose traffic volume could grow greatly with the government-driven domestic development in the next few years.
TA said traffic volume growth of 7% year-on-year to 10.9 billion passenger car units (PCU) for the 10 months to October 2007 “has been encouraging, so far”.
The group's future acquisition of the ELITE and Linkedua highways announced in June last year is also expected to benefit PLUS partly from advantageous pricing from friendly party and parent, UEM Group.

Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB). TNB is the choice of Aseambankers and TA. At its current price level of around RM9.80, the stock has plenty of upside to the two brokerages' target prices.
Aseambankers said there could be a “reversion of 'old' bellwethers like TNB”. “We also foresee some resurgence, particularly for TNB, following a lacklustre year for the old 'TMT' bellwethers TNB, Malayan Banking Bhd and Telekom Malaysia Bhd,” it added.
TA said driving the demand growth is the general increase in economic activity, with an expected gross domestic product growth of 6.2% in 2008 and “spillover effect” from the commencement of big-ticket Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP) projects.

RCE Capital Bhd. For mid-caps, RCE has the largest upside among Aseambankers' picks.
RCE, the brokerage said in a report, could be a “beneficiary of higher consumer spending from the recent civil service salary hike”.

Ann Joo Resources Bhd. This is Aseambankers' favourite counter in the building materials sector, which still has plenty of upside and is trading quite cheaply at the moment.
Ann Joo is an emerging integrated steel player that could benefit from sky-high steel prices. Aseambankers expects “titanic growth” for building materials plays.