AMBANK (M) Bhd is issuing five new European-style cash-settled warrants (CWs) on the back of a rallying Malaysian stock market and improved risk appetite for emerging market equities-The new CWs will be issued on the ordinary shares of Bursa Malaysia Bhd (Bursa); Multi-Purpose Holdings Bhd (MPHB); KNM Group Bhd (KNM); RHB Capital Bhd (RHBCap) and Genting Plantations Bhd (GPB)-The warrants will be listed tomorrow with a tenure of about 12 months and issue size of up to 100 million each- Ambank said the CWs aim to provide leveraged yet affordable equity investment alternatives to Malaysian investors-The benchmark FBM KLCI closed 2010 with overall gains of nearly 20 per cent, making it one of the top performing stock markets in the Asian region-"We believe that the impressive performance by the local bourse has attracted foreign interest that will catapult KLCI to higher levels- We expect the market's bullish momentum to continue into the new year, as trading volumes pick up- Therefore, we are following up on our previous tranche of warrants at the beginning of January with a tranche of five warrants," AmInvestment Bank Bhd director/head of equities derivatives Ng Ee Fang said-AmBank's warrant programme aims to provide leveraged market exposure to cater for different investor profiles, she said-Bursa was chosen due to strong equity market performance to date and overall it is expected to benefit from the government's efforts to rejuvenate the capital markets-Oil and gas engineering company KNM recently saw its stock price climb higher on the back of an improving order book and positive news flow-Plantations company GPB, meanwhile, is expected to benefit in the coming months on the back of firmer commodity markets and palm oil prices- Its vast landbank could also provide a boost to earnings on rising property value and development potential-Ng also said that RHBCap is expected to be one of the many beneficiaries of the government's Economic Transformation Programme, a mammoth plan that would require some RM80 billion in funding-On MPHB, she said the company is a major player in the gaming industry and has been in the news lately on market talk that it is considering to relist Magnum, which was privatised three years ago-...

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