KUALA LUMPUR: Key regional markets are expected to stay cautious on Thursday, May 5 in the absence of strong fresh positive external leads.

On Wall Street, weak economic figures heightened stock investors' anxiety over the extended rally, knocking U.S. shares lower for a third day on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 83.93 points, or 0.66 percent, to 12,723.58. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 9.30 points, or 0.69 percent, to 1,347.32. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 13.39 points, or 0.47 percent, to 2,828.23.

The CBOE volatility index rose 2.3 percent to 17.08 for a rise of more than 17 percent over the past four sessions, shifting its near-term momentum to positive for the first time in more than a month.

At Bursa, blue chips on Bursa Malaysia extended their losses for the fourth day on Wednesday, sending the FBM KLCI below the 1,530 level again.

Stocks to watch include Boilermech Holdings Bhd, Ingenuity Solutions, FITTERS DIVERSIFIED BHD [] and POS MALAYSIA BHD []. Also in focus would be HEVEABOARD BHD [].

Boilermech designs and manufactures biomass boilers. Its offer price is 33 sen while OSK Research has fair value of 45 sen.

Ingenuity, which was queried over unusual market activity, will sign an MoU on Thursday, to submit an integrated hospital information system to the Health Ministry. The system is to interlink hospitals and clinics in Malaysia to the ministry

Fitters, whose share price fell after it faced the threat of suspension on May 10, said it had set Friday as the deadline to submit the audited financial statement to avoid suspension.

Pos Malaysia holds its shareholders meeting late Thursday morning. There are expectations of strong response from minority shareholders over the acquisition of Khazanah Nasional's stake in the national postal company by DRB-Hicom.

In Heveaboard Bhd, Dongwha Malaysia Holdings Sdn Bhd decided not to buy Heveaboard's assets. Heaveaboard said Dongwha decided not to go ahead after the former'' imposed certain conditions following the request for an extension of time to complete the preliminary due diligence.

Meanwhile, a news report said seven companies have been shortlisted for the first phase of the US$2.5 billion (RM7.45 billion) infrastructure of Brazil's Vale International project.

Among them are MUHIBBAH ENGINEERING (M) BHD [], Gadang Bhd and Sunway CONSTRUCTION [] Bhd.