Daily Commentaries 12th Mar 07

The KLCI did sustain its upward momentum in early trade Friday although much of the gains were pared ahead of the weekend. The Board of EPF has come out to defend the acquisition of RHB whilst revealing plans are afoot to bring in few strategic partners into the banking group. Other key news out of the weekend are the likely success of Melewars's bid for the RM1.2bn Penang monorail project and Scomi's disposal of its oil field subsidiary to Standard Chartered Private Equity. Also, Sapura Crest is reported to have secured a major offshore oil deal worth US$3bn. US markets closed slightly firmer nudged by better unemployment data last Friday. External developments will continue to dictate the patchy recovery in sentiment but there is upside bias for the KLCI given talks of the potential award of construction/9MP contracts. Support is seen at 1150 while resistance zones are eyed at 1190-1240.