KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 25): Shares of semiconductor and hard disk drive-related counters advanced on Wednesday as investors appeared confident of a more positive outlook for the semiconductor sector.
At 12 noon, MALAYSIAN PACIFIC INDUSTRIES [] jumped 31 sen to RM3.59, UNISEM (M) BHD [] gained nine sen to RM1.44, JCY International added five sen to RM1.19 while Eng Teknologi rose three sen to RM1.73.
RHB Research Institute last week upgraded Unisem and MPI to market perform from underperform following the upbeat outlook from major players about the semiconductor industry.
It raised the fair value (FV) for Unisem to RM1.22, MPI’s FV to RM2.79 while Notion VTec’s FV was raised to RM1.69 (underperform outlook unchanged).
RHB Research said US based IC design company Linear TECHNOLOGY [] gave an upbeat outlook for the industry.
This would be the third positive guidance after Broadcom and ChipMOS, and indicates a more positive tone for the industry after a parade of negative guidance last month.
“We have already factored in a weak 1Q12 for local packaging players, as there is still lack of order visibility, but we believe the industry may be on track for some recovery in 2Q12, and stronger recovery in 2H12.
“We believe the demand weakness for chips has already been priced in. Thus, we are raising our benchmark forward target P/BV from 0.6 times to 0.8 times for the semiconductor players. We upgrade Unisem and MPI to Market Perform (from underperform),” said RHB Research.
At 12 noon, MALAYSIAN PACIFIC INDUSTRIES [] jumped 31 sen to RM3.59, UNISEM (M) BHD [] gained nine sen to RM1.44, JCY International added five sen to RM1.19 while Eng Teknologi rose three sen to RM1.73.
RHB Research Institute last week upgraded Unisem and MPI to market perform from underperform following the upbeat outlook from major players about the semiconductor industry.
It raised the fair value (FV) for Unisem to RM1.22, MPI’s FV to RM2.79 while Notion VTec’s FV was raised to RM1.69 (underperform outlook unchanged).
RHB Research said US based IC design company Linear TECHNOLOGY [] gave an upbeat outlook for the industry.
This would be the third positive guidance after Broadcom and ChipMOS, and indicates a more positive tone for the industry after a parade of negative guidance last month.
“We have already factored in a weak 1Q12 for local packaging players, as there is still lack of order visibility, but we believe the industry may be on track for some recovery in 2Q12, and stronger recovery in 2H12.
“We believe the demand weakness for chips has already been priced in. Thus, we are raising our benchmark forward target P/BV from 0.6 times to 0.8 times for the semiconductor players. We upgrade Unisem and MPI to Market Perform (from underperform),” said RHB Research.
