KUALA LUMPUR: Genting Bhd shares bucked the cautious market in early trade on Monday, Feb 8 after Resorts World at Sentosa (RWS) was awarded its casino licence over the weekend.

At 9.14am, it was up 14 sen to RM6.92 with 1.77 million shares done.

OSK Research said while it was not entirely surprised as it had been expecting an early casino opening, potentially before Chinese New Year, the early opening ahead of Marina Bay Sands (MBS) will be positive as it allows RWS to reap the full benefits of a monopoly during the typically peak CNY festive season.

It had Genting Singapore at a trading buy at S$1.22.

"Although the upside to our fair value is relatively limited, we believe that Genting Singapore’s share price will continue to re-rate on the back of the following: i) longer than expected monopoly period if Marina Bay Sands opens later than expected, and 2) strong casino opening numbers and visitor arrivals given the benefit of a temporary monopoly and the novelty effect.

"These underpin our Trading BUY as expectations typically run ahead of fundamentals, noting that Las Vegas Sands’ valuation peaked at 31x EV/EBITDA 3 months post opening vs Genting Singapore’s current 14.1x FY11 EV/EBITDA," it said.