Stocks to watch: Paramount, Bina Puri, Key West, Dayang

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 13.32 points, or 0.12 percent, to 11,372.48. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 4.53 points, or 0.37 percent, to 1,228.28. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 10.67 points, or 0.41 percent, to 2,609.16.

At Bursa Malaysia, stocks to watch are Paramount Corp Bhd, BINA PURI HOLDINGS BHD, Dayang Enterprise, semiconductor-related companies and KEY WEST GLOBAL TELECOMM unications Bhd.

Paramount Corp Bhd has declared a special dividend of 40 sen per share.

The dividend would go ex on Dec 21 and the entitlement date would be Dec 23

Paramount, had on Dec 1, completed the sake of its 20% stake in Jerneh Insurance Bhd to ACE INA International Holdings Ltd for RM130.8 million cash.

The Edge FinancialDaily reports the share price gyrations seen in Key West of late could just be the tip of the iceberg.

n response to a query from Bursa Malaysia Securities over the sharp fall in price and high volume of trading of the company’s shares, it said it was unaware of the factors.

It had on Nov 26, announced a proposed private placement of up to 10% of the issued and paid-up share capital.

Key West suffered two years of consecutive losses and the board had proposed several options to increase sales and profit margin coupled with effective costs management.

“The board will also look into various other options, which may include but not limited to possible disposal of loss-making subsidiaries or diversifying into new viable business,” it said.

Semicon-related stocks could benefit from the firmer close on Nasdaq after solid outlooks from Texas Instruments Inc and Novellus Systems Inc.

Dayang Enterprise has proposed to dispose of its 40% stake in Borcos for RM135m cash.(The Edge Online Malaysia)