Alliance, PetroVietnam, Polaris: Asia Ex-Japan Equity Preview

By Berni Moestafa

July 10 (Bloomberg) -- The following companies may have unusual price changes in Asian trading, excluding Japan. Stock symbols are in parentheses, and prices are from the previous close.

Air China Ltd. (601111 CH): China's largest international carrier, said it won approval from the securities regulator to issue as many as 400 million A shares on the mainland stock market. Air China rose 2.16 percent to 10.39 yuan.

Alliance Global Group Inc. (AGI PM): Philippine billionaire Andrew Tan's investment company said it will buy as much as 2 billion pesos ($44 million) of its own shares to boost a stock that lost over half of its value this year. Alliance, which will run the buyback program for 18 months starting today, was unchanged at 2.65 pesos.

GS Engineering & Construction Corp. (006360 KS): South Korea's third-largest builder said it received an 87.9 billion won ($88 million) order for a housing project in Vietnam. The project is part of the company's 7 trillion won property-development plan in the Southeast Asian nation. GS Engineering rose 0.2 percent to 95,100 won.

IOI Corp. (IOI MK): Malaysia's second-biggest palm oil producer bought back 2.2 million of its shares for 14.5 million ringgit ($4.5 million), paying as much as 6.65 ringgit each, a stock exchange filing showed. IOI was unchanged at 6.65 ringgit.

LG Display Co. (034220 KS): The world's second-largest maker of liquid-crystal displays said second-quarter net income tripled to 759 billion won after higher demand helped drive up prices and shipments. LG Display raised its capital spending budget 50 percent to 4.5 trillion won, while its prediction for third-quarter profitability missed analysts' estimates. LG Display declined 6.3 percent to 34,350 won.

Megaworld Corp. (MEG PM): The No.2 Philippine builder said it will start the construction of its fifth high-end residential block in McKinley Hill, a property inside a former Army camp in Manila that's being turned into blocks of apartments and offices. The stock gained 3.3 percent to 1.26 pesos.

PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Joint-Stock Co. (PVD VN): The company, which supplies drilling services to ConocoPhillips and Petroliam Nasional Bhd., said net profit more than doubled to 500 billion dong ($30 million) as its rig operated at full efficiency. PetroVietnam gained 2.8 percent to 91,500 dong.

Polaris Securities Co. (2854 TT): Taiwan's largest online brokerage said sales in June fell 90 percent from a year earlier to NT$66.9 million ($2.2 million), as the domestic market was roiled by global concerns over credit losses and surging energy costs. Polaris fell 0.3 percent to NT$15.3.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCB PM): The Philippines' No. 8 bank by value said it is reviewing ``several banks'' for acquisitions, responding to a Philippine Daily Inquirer report that it is among four potential buyers of Asiatrust Development Bank (ASIA PM). Rizal Bank declined 1.7 percent to 14.75 pesos. Asiatrust, Manila-based thrift bank, increased 11 percent to 8.90 pesos.

Sembcorp Marine Ltd. (SMM SP): A shipyard owned by Sembcorp, the world's second-largest maker of oil rigs, will build a 100 million-euro ($157 million) fallpipe vessel for Dredging Environmental & Marine Engineering NV of Belgium. Sembawang Shipyard Pte will deliver the vessel in the first quarter of 2011, DEME said. Sembcorp Marine rose 0.2 percent to S$4.25.

To contact the reporter on this story: Berni Moestafa in Jakarta at bmoestafa@bloomberg.net.