YTL Corp-Fast Track to Singapore

Hi-speed to nowhere

The hi speed rail link project between Singapore and Malaysia has apparently been announced.

The heavy buying by EPF started yesterday when the prices of the counter fell.

YTL Corp went as low as RM 1.55 in the opening minutes before recovering to keeled off at the RM 1.56 to RM 1.57 level.

Then, geez, what do you know?

In the last 15 minutes there was a heave-ho!

Two million of so of shares bought in tranches of 500,000 shares.

The price perked up two cents to RM 1.58.

I smell the handiwork of EPF and other state pension funds!

In a normal market there could be day traders and speculators who would have jumped head-long onto YTL Corp.

The scenario these days are different.

Even if YTL Corp got the moon and Jupiter, any rise will be cut short be eager sellers out to make some small money to exit before the potential fallout wrought by the impending 13th GE news and the crazy politicking going on out there.

While foreign buyers are getting scarcer by the day, retail buyers are mostly missing except for some stale bulls and the state  pension funds doing national service.

Do not get excited at any price jump any day these days.

Stay out and watch the ice melt down the prices at BSKL as the days draw nearer when the Johore and Negeri Sembilan state assemblies dissolve by the third week of March.

Killer Elite- Ultra Violence Unexplained

Violence Personified!

Nonsensical violence-almost and that is what you get from watching these he-man actors with their punches, knives and guns.

Jason Statham, Robert DeNiro and Clive Owen showed that there is a little heart in the world for love.

Silent Type Killer

It's always a man's world out there and playing adult toys is hteir in thing.

It has been like that since the Rambo movies and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The plot is wafer thin; almost laughable of an old sheikh in exile wanting to take revenge on some invincible British SAS rogue soldiers who apparently killed his three sons in Oman.

Though the film claimed it is based on a true story, it is too far-fetched to be true to form.

Whatever it is, the only watchable thing in this movie is the beautiful Yvonne Strahovski.

Columbiana-The Cataleya Killing Machine

This is one violent movie and yet it engages you from the very start after the Bogota family annihilation by the drug cartel.

Reminds you of the movie, "Man on Fire".

Big guns

A young girl, Cataleya named after a Columbia orchid, trained up to be a professional killer until she gets to the man who ordered the killing oh her family.

Do not expect smart conversation from this movie but fire power from beginning to end.

Saldana appeal

Zoe Saldana of Avatar fame keeps you on the edge of your seat as she systematically disposed off her victims one after the other.

High octane action if you love this genre.

The Steady Decimation of YTL Corp- Why-lah?

Price Slide in the Offing?

It takes two to tango, so they say.

In YTL Corp's case, they certainly have tango out from the dance hall into the adjacent cesspool.

In its apparent haste to de-list as many of its companies,  the YTL Group  has taken out their most valuable listed assets.

First, it was the privatisation of YTL Cement and with that they no longer have to pay the minuscule dividends to the shareholders nor waste anymore money on its listing status.

Next, they intend to take YTLPower out as well as their Malaysian power concessions have not been extended.

So, YTL Power will be privatized by and by and will soon buy into energy plants perhaps in Europe and Australia.

What I felt distasteful about YTL Corp in spite of its sweeteners such as their distribution in specie of its Treasury shares as well as selling its YTL Power warrants on the cheap, is its never-ending market operations to buy back their corporate bonds by issuing YTL Corp shares at low prices from RM 1.60 to RM 1.80  apiece depending on the current prices of YTL Corp shares then.

This internal dilution caused any potential run-up of the prices to pause and YTL shares is stuck for an extremely long time below RM 1.80.

Then we havethe other tango partner - that sly barracuda swimming in the Bursa every trading minute-EPF and in its train-its trading agents.

While one agent will sell the share down, another will buy it  creating unnecessary trading activity.

Every time the market turns sour, YTL Corp will slide about 5% thanks to these agents.

If at all, there is YTL Corp Treasury action, it seems not to work.

Currently, YTL Corp shares are trading at RM1.56 as EPF has now turned buyer after selling them possibly in the mid RM 1.70s. You can check these records on the Bursa site.

And with the political uncertainties swirling;  and the flip-flopping Selangor MB deciding not to dissolve the Selangor State assembly anytime soon, we may have to wait a little longer for YTL Corp shares to find a price that will find traction.

Remember any upward action or even stabilising play could be the work of EPF or stale bulls.

Do not expect day traders on this moribund counter.

For the moment, any bad news will stumble YTL Corp shareholders and the price of YTL Corp may just tumbled below the RM 1.50 mark!

Caveat emptor.

Drive-Simple Yet Exciting Through It All

Cool Driver

Perhaps it is the cool demeanor of Ryan Gosling that provided some excitement to the show.

The Get-away Driver

No, there isn't any super driving skills shown in this movie that will match Bulitt.

Even the romantic aspects with Carey Mulligan was under-done.

Under-done Candy

Yet, through, it all, it does have its share of excitement amidst the violence that is unnecessarily unleashed.

BSKL-The Calm Before the Tsunami Storm

Plain to See

No one, in his wildest imagination, can fathom  this forthcoming potential calamity of the BSKL.

I think that there is hardly anyone who was truly involved in the mayhem unleashed on the market during the May 13 in the fateful year of 1969.

I am sure many lost tons of money when the stock market went almost rock bottom during the attack on Kuwait by Saddam Hussein in the year 1990 or in the 1997 currency contagion debacle.

While the European markets are still being roiled by sovereignty debt issues cutting any ability to buy more from developing nations, expect growth to plateau off or even dip slightly in exporting nations.

Any bad news on China's growth will impact negatively on our palm oil exports.

While the global economic picture does not seems one bit brighter, the local scene is likely to deteriorate given the impending national elections.

Signs are not good for BN to retain power easily.

Any further loss in state governments will be nasty for the National Front.

The rumour mills are fill of rumblings of the political decimation of the BN component parties except in Sabah and Sarawak.

Is the PSY concert creating negative vibes on the whole country?

Given this kind of 'sinking feeling' scenario, BSKL will likely slide due to attrition activities, if it does not receive a hefty  jab to the jaw.

Do not look at the high priced stocks that are the darlings of foreign funds such as BAT,F & N, Panasonic, KLK and Nestle. These are just index indicators.

A small drop in their price will create havoc. Similarly, a rise will jack up the index. They are mirage formers. Do not trust the index.

Watch out if you are holding penny stocks and those in the ringgit to two ringgit range.

If such stocks are not GLC holdings, they will be the first victims to fall to the effects of attrition as their prices will slide daily, even in minute doses, as long as there are weak sellers and greedy bargain hunters. Very soon, without you knowing,  these counters would have lost 10 to 20% of their value!

Some destabilising news will come from the Selangor front soon  if the MB should announce the dissolution of the State Assembly after Chap Goh Mei.

Whatever the outcome; irrespective of the possibility of the Sultan not giving his blessings or the Election Commission not willing to fix an early date for the Selangor polls, expect high octave uncertainty to occur on the political scene that will rock the BSKL.

The best thing to do is to have a big war chest of funds and jump into the market when there are clear signals  of a new stable government being formed.

Ensure early safe departure

Remember you cannot buy at the best lowest  price all the time  unless you are a dare-devil high risk-taker.

Buy in when the market finds traction and do so gradually; and have some reserves to take advantage of intra-falls as the market moves up after the general elections.

Meanwhile, don't play but pray!

The Phuket Tsunami

The Impossible Escape

The disastrous 2004 tsunami that caught holiday-goers in 2004 in Phuket, Thailand is the main premise of the movie, " The Impossible" starring Naomi Watts and Ewan MacGreggor.

There were moments when you expected the obvious and yet it did not come particularly that of the  fate of Dr.Maria as she laid in a life and death limbo in the closing minutes of the movie.

However, as many lives were lost, many families got away with scratches from this impossible natural calamity. That Dr. Maria's family was fully saved and reunited through this horrible event made for a happy ending for the film.

The two younger members of the family acted quite well and we are shown the emotive side of Ewan as he sought desperately for his missing wife and eldest son.

Quite a watchable fare.