KUALA LUMPUR: Shares of JAKS Resources Bhd advanced in early trade on Friday, Dec 3 after its joint venture with IJM Corp Bhd secured the RM268 million contract for part of the Pahang-Selangor interstate raw water transfer project (IRWT).

At 9.15am, JAKS was up 3.5 sen to 73.5 sen with 2.93 million shares done.

IJM Corp, which had rallied in recent day, slipped nine sen to RM6.04.

The FBM KLCI rose 1.8 points to 1,505.02. Turnover was 89.09 million shares valued at RM75.92 million. Advancers beat decliners 173 to 57 while 112 stocks were unchanged.

AmResearch said the contract was for the Semantan Pipeline and related works.

"More importantly, we believe a successful roll-out of this package could put both IJM and JAKS in a position to also bid for the piping works under Langat 2 (the Selangor portion of the IRWT) worth RM800 million to RM900 million.

"But, the status of the RM5 billion project is still evolving due to uncertainties surrounding the restructuring of Selangor's fragmented water industry," it said.