KUALA LUMPUR (March 25): Big-capitalisation construction stocks are on the rise today, in line with the jump at regional markets, as the Bursa Malaysia Construction Index marked a 6% increase, making it the second largest gainer among the sectoral indices.

At 11.50am, Sunway Construction Group Bhd (SunCon) posted the highest increase among the counters with more than RM1 billion market capitalisation, rising 15 sen or 11.1% to RM1.50, translating into a market capitalisation of RM1.93 billion.

The continued rise in SunCon’s share price provides a brief reprieve from the previous selldown in its shares, which started about two weeks ago. Year-to-date, SunCon is down 21.5%.

Gamuda Bhd was also up, posting a 7.3% increase to RM2.79, as well as IJM Corp Bhd (up 7.3% at RM1.48) and Ekovest Bhd (up 4.1% at 38 sen).

Other relatively smaller big-cap counters also saw increases, including Econpile Holdings Bhd (up 9% at 36.5 sen), AME Elite Consortium (up 8% at RM1.22) and WCT Holdings Bhd (up 7.4% at 36.5 sen).

Among the smaller players, Vizione Holdings Bhd posted a significant increase with a 10% rise to 27.5 sen, as well as Gadang Holdings Bhd (up 11.8% at 28.5 sen).

The action, however, was mostly in the bigger-cap players, as the smaller caps saw smaller movements.

The share prices of construction stocks have been on a downtrend since mid-February, as reflected in the construction index, which currently stands at 132.77 points, versus 212.54 points on Feb 14. Year-to-date, the index has dropped 36.5%.

Meanwhile, the enforcement of the Movement Control Order by the government has not helped sentiment in the sector, as most projects in the country have been halted to comply with restrictions during the partial lockdown period.