STOCKS NEWS MALAYSIA-Kulim climbs 2 pct after raising stake in New Britain

Shares in Malaysian plantation firm Kulim (M) Bhd rosemore than 2 percent after it announced plans to raise its stakein London-listed New Britain Palm Oil Ltd. In a deal valued at $258 million, Kulim's stake in Papua NewGuinea-focused New Britain will rise by 20 percent to just under70 percent as the Malaysian planter looks to capture more of theLondon-listed firm's earnings. The move comes after Kulim last year sold its stake in QSRand KFC Holdings, which control fast-food franchises inMalaysia, signalling the firm wanted to mostly focus on growingits plantation business. Kulim shares rose 2.2 percent to 3.58 Malaysian ringgit,outperforming the broader market, which dropped 0.7 percent. 0634 GMT (Reporting by Niluksi Koswanage; Editing by PrateekChatterjee) ************************************************************** 09:53 STOCKS NEWS MALAYSIA-Hwang keeps call on Pos Malaysia Following is a list of Malaysian stock price target changes denominated in ringgit currency and smaller cap rating changes. Company Research House Rating Target Changes Pos Malaysia Hwang DBS Buy 5.60 Nil - "We acknowledge the strong performance of Pos Malaysia's share price since mid-2012 and we believe there ismore upside to be realised from: i) Further synergies withDRB-HICOM. ii) Development of prime landbank; 20.3 hectares oflandbank is still carried at book value and developmentpotential is yet to be fully accounted in POSM's valuation. iii)M&A activities. iv) Potential special dividends as its section108 tax credit will expire by end-2013 (210 million ringgit asof 1Q13). Also, POSM has declared its final net dividend pershare of 7.1 sen (1.4 percent net yield)." Company Research House Rating Target Changes SBC Corporation Kenanga Trading buy 2.35 New - "Most of SBC Corporation's landbanks were acquiredbetween the period of 2000-2004, hence relatively low in landcost.Their net gearing is comfortably at 0.2x which providesample room for landbanking. SBC has been making in-roads intoKota Kinabalu, Sabah (KK), which is another booming market. Weproject FY14E net profit of 29.3 million ringgit (+10 percent on year). The stock is trading at 4.8x FY14E PER and 0.4x FY14EPBV which is far below its peer (developers of 100-500millionringgit market cap) average of 10.8x Fwd PER and 1.0x Fwd PBV.By revaluing their landbanks, particularly the KL and KKlandbanks, we derive an RNAV of 5.86 ringgit. Even afterapplying our maximum RNAV discount of 60 per on their RNAV (dueto small market capitalization of 145 million ringgit), wederive a target price of 2.35 ringgit, which provides a 38percent share price upside to the last price of 1.70 ringgit." (Reporting by Kuala Lumpur Newsroom Tel: +603 2333-8046; Fax: 603 2161-3340; Bureau email: areuters@gmail.com) **************************************************************** 09:17 STOCKS NEWS MALAYSIA-Index drops in early trade Malaysia's benchmark stock index fell in early tradeafter U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke confirmedmarket fears that the central bank would begin reducing itsstimulus later this year as the economy improved. The index dropped 0.56 percent, led by decline inplantations-to-automotive conglomerate Sime Darby Bhd and oil and gas service firm Bumi Armada Bhd. The 30 stock index outperformed both the MSCI's broadestindex of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan thatfell 1.64 percent, and Tokyo's Nikkei share average,which declined 0.94 percent. "The key index will face a test of resilience as thebenchmark index may pull back towards the immediate supportlevel of 1,750 ahead," HwangDBS Vickers Research said in aresearch note to clients on Thursday. HwangDBS also said investors will watch IGB Corporation Bhd after the property firm announced it is paying 33million ringgit for a controlling stake in another real estatecompany with interest in the Iskandar Malaysia economic zone. The index was down 0.54 percent at 0904am (0104GMT). 0905 (0105 GMT) (Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui; Editing by Sunil Nair)