KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB Equities Research is maintaining its Overweight recommendation on the construction sector with Gamuda and WCT as the top picks.

The research house said on Thursday, Aug 12 that after releasing its construction sector piece on July 19, it went on a roadshow in Malaysia and Singapore where it met 55 fund managers (FM) and buy-side analysts from 28 investment management firms in Malaysia and 13 FMs and analysts from nine firms across the causeway.

CIMB Research said it highlighted that the key theme for the construction sector over the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP) period will be public transportation. The sector could see a big boost if the mass rapid transit (MRT) proposal goes through.

?Gamuda would be the biggest beneficiary. We maintain our view that the MRT proposal has a high chance of being approved, possibly as early as this month. We also gave investors an update of existing mega jobs for which progress has been encouraging since the beginning of the year. This should allay concerns over execution of the projects, which is one of investors? main reservations,? it said.

CIMB Research said most of the investors shared its view that the construction sector is still in play, especially after the recent announcement of the 10MP which laid out several high-impact projects.