KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 23): RHB Research has downgraded Hua Yang Bhd to “Neutral” (from Buy) with an unchanged target price of RM2.28 in light of the challenging property market.

In a note Friday, the research house said take-ups for new launches had been slow, and it expects this trend to continue in the near future.

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 23): CIMB Research has maintained its Add rating on Mah Sing Group Bhd at RM2.06 with a lower target price of RM2.49 (from RM2.63) and said Mah Sing's share price went ex on Jan 22 for the 3-for-10 rights issue and the 3-free-warrants-for-10-rights shares.

In a note Jan 22, the research house said the 1-for-4 bonus issue was expected to go ex later in 3Q.

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 23): Hong Leong IB Research has maintained its “Neutral” rating on the real estate investment trust (REIT) sector and said retail REITs will continue to outperform over office REITs given its pricing power and potentially higher rental income from positive rental revision.

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 22): Guocoland (M) Bhd saw its net profit for the second quarter ended Dec 31, 2014 (2QFY15) fallen 75.4% to RM3.02 million or 0.45 sen a share; while revenue fell to RM55.3 million, from RM59.1 million previously.

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 22): Kimlun Corporation Bhd has secured a housing development contract worth RM230.7 million from Nusajaya Heights Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of UEM Sunrise Bhd.

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 22): Scanwolf Corp Bhd has been issued an unusual market activity (UMA) query after a series of higher closes for the stock over the past three weeks, and a 75.44% jump from its lowest point this month of 57 sen.

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 22): UDA Holdings Bhd has raked in RM142 million sales of 201 property units from its recently-concluded U4RIA Property Carnival, held in December 2014.

In a press statement today, UDA’s group managing director Ahmad Abu Bakar said demand for local properties was still encouraging and that the market was still on an upward trend.

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 22): Perbadanan PR1MA Malaysia (PR1MA) believes it can rope in more private developers to build affordable homes, as the local economy and property market start to embrace more challenges.

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 22): The depreciating ringgit is deemed a "silver lining" for the Malaysian property industry, as local real estate would be priced more competitively against world markets, according to IJM Land Bhd CEO Datuk Soam Heng Choon.

Soam said a weaker ringgit would not affect developers' costs, as long as they did not use imported goods.

KUALA LUMPUR (January 22): Hua Yang Bhd gained as much as 5% during the morning trading session, after the company posted strong results for its third quarter ended Dec 31, 2014 (3Q15).

At 11am, Hua Yang (fundamental: 1.7; valuation: 2.4) rose 8 sen or 4% to RM2.23, with 469,500 shares exchanging hands. The counter earlier gained 10 sen or 5% to reach a high of RM2.25.