Bursar-Expect Some Sunshine This Year

Investment Banks are back on number crunching and scenario building. They expect a better year for stocks.

I am posting this news article as a benchmark to view the actual performance of the Bursar until the last trading day of the last week of 2010.

Let us read what they have to say.

"Share prices on Bursa Malaysia are likely to start the new year on a positive tone next week as investors return to swarm the market amid improving signs of economic recovery globally, dealers said.

The market, which closed for three consecutive Fridays starting Dec 17 last year for public holidays, had restrained some of these investors from taking heavy positions over long weekends. The local bourse was also closed for the New Year celebration yesterday.

This week, the local stock market is expected to be buoyant again with prospects for the new year remaining positive should the pace of economic recovery is maintained, said a dealer.

According to MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd, strong earnings growth with more than 20 per cent is expected to be registered in the media, construction, utilities and shipping companies.

However, the strong earnings growth may not necessarily translate into positive investment recommendation as the latter is a matter of valuation, it said.

The main downside risk for earnings would be the rollback of public sector support where a smaller public spending especially on infrastructure projects would undermine earnings of companies drawing on government-related projects.

“More importantly, corporate Malaysia has to be wary about the pullback of monetary stimulus, as we expect an end to the easy money policy this year. Interest rates will start climbing again and that means a different kind of monetary dynamics that companies will have to handle,” the investment bank said in its research note.

MIDF is projecting the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index to move to the 1,450 level this year.

Throughout the week just ended, trading was moderate with the FBM KLCI moving within 1,264.83 and 1,275.22 points.

On a Thursday-to-Thursday basis, the FBM KLCI rose 12.25 points to 1,272.78 from 1,260.53 the previous week.

The Finance Index jumped 172.90 points to 11,053.40, the Plantation Index increased 82.82 points to 6,362.91 while the Industrial Index eased 2.26 points to 2,654.51.

The FBM Emas Index surged 114.13 points to 8,507.61, the FBM Top 100 Index increased 95.34 points to 8,308.89, the FBM70 Index rose 155.84 points to 8,269.22 and the FBM Ace Index was 81.06 points higher at 4,299.58.

A total of 2.223 billion shares worth RM2.978 billion changed hands during the week compared with 1.714 billion shares worth RM2.713 billion traded previously.

Volume on the main market rose to 1.905 billion units valued at RM2.899 billion from last Thursday’s closing of 1.471 billion shares valued at RM2.656 billion.

Turnover for call warrants surged to 104.154 million units worth RM18.766 million from 46.024 million units worth RM6.693 million previously.

The ACE Market volume improved to 146.994 million shares valued at RM39.569 million from last Thursday’s 140.415 million shares valued at RM35.003 million. — Bernama"

Fear and Anxieties over ASEAN -India FTA

What is good for the so-called majority may not be good for minority groups. INdia has now exhibit fear and trepidation regarding some backwash effect of the ASEAN-India Free Trade Area Agreement.

Read the Bernama report on this.(2nd January 2010).

"Finally the Asean-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) came into effect on Jan 1, but with some trepidation on the Indian side, as fears and criticism mount on the trade pact, drafted after almost six years of tough negotiations.

A range of cheaper products — largely from Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, would soon enter the Indian market, as the three economies will implement the FTA with India, Asia’s third largest economy, from Jan 1 in the first phase.

“We are not against the agreement but fishermen in Kerala are unhappy because imports will affect the livehoods of traditional and small scale fishery sectors.

“Our coastal fish vendors who are mostly women will suffer, if cheaper fish enters our market,” T Peter, president of Kerala Independent Fish Workers Federation, told Bernama in a telephone interview.

About one million fishermen in the southern state of Kerala rely on the sea. In Kerala, there had been strong agitation from coconut, cashewnut and spice growers, who fear the deal, would jeopardise their livelihoods, as cheaper products from neighbouring countries enter their market.

Under the FTA, considered the world’s largest, covering a market of nearly 1.8 billion people, tariffs would be gradually slashed for over 4,000 product lines over a staggered period, by 2016, but sensitive products on both sides were shielded to some degree.

“The business community supports the agreement, that is a positive significance but there had been lot of criticism from states like Kerala, such as tea and coffee planters. Now some sectors will surely come under pressure at home.

“Asean will gain substantially from the market access and Asean’s exports to India will increase substantially, but our exports will be modest,” said a senior Indian official familiar with the FTA negotiations.

India’s trade with the three Asean economies stands at US$40 billion (RM140 billion), forming the bulk of the India-Asean total trade volume of nearly US$44 billion (RM154 billion).

But skepticism stills hovers on the deal, as some Indian-Asean watchers believe several domestic sectors will find it hard to compete with the more competitive Southeast Asian players.

“FTA is more political rather than economics. We have to wait for another five years to see the impact on trade, the economic bite will only come later.

“But for now the statement of intent is more important, the political linkages had been established,” added Prof Manoj Pant, at the Centre of International Trade and Development, in Jawaharlal Nehru University.

So, the effects will come very much later. It's politics today and economics tomorrow.

Does it Happen Elsewhere?

For the Muslims, if you are not married, you cannot be caught together in a room with a male counterpart who is not a direct sibling. If you are, then you would be caught just like this unfortunate women in Kuantan, a town in Muslim Malaysia.

I took this from the online STAR of Malaysia. It was written by Nik Naizi Husin.

"A woman sat on a mere 20cm-wide ledge outside a window on the fourth floor of a hotel here in an attempt to evade being caught during a Religious Department raid.

Apparently, her 28-year-old companion had asked her to hide when department officers knocked on the door of their room yesterday.In safe hands: The woman is carried into the room by the raiding officers at the hotel in Kuantan yesterday.

Upon opening the door, the man told the raiding team that he was alone in the room. However, the officers noticed a bra and a pair of women’s shoes there.

The team was at the hotel in Jalan Wong Ah Jang here to conduct Ops Insaf, a New Year raid that was held from midnight to 9am yesterday,

An officer subsequently spotted the 20-year-old sitting on the ledge when he parted the curtains and opened the sliding window.

When the team asked her to come back into the room, she refused and started crying.

Worried about her precarious position, the officer asked her boyfriend to coax her.

Later, the woman said she thought she had a chance to escape from the raid.
Danger level: The 20-year-old perched dangerously on the fourth floor window ledge as a raiding team broke into the room.

The Chief enforcement officer chief Ahmad who led the anti-vice team comprising 30 department officers and 60 volunteers [Imagine this number to catch two people!], said such incidents were “nothing new” because offenders did not want to face the music.

“They know that they are not married but they still want to sleep together which is an offence according to Islam,” he said.

“Our intention is to curb such activities and the punishment is meant to teach them a lesson,” he said.

They could be fined up to RM1,000 or jailed six months or both under an enactment on religion and customs."

With these kind of things happening in Malaysia,we are going to have a dent in all the national efforts to attract tourists to Malaysia, be it for "Malaysia-My Second Home" or even "Medical Tourism-Malaysia".

Malaysia has always been a nation that is uncertain of herself. On the one hand, she wants to be seen as a moderate Muslim nation; on the other hand, she allow such 'unspoken' things to happen.

Does it happen elsewhere?

Seeing the New Morn of 2010

For many,it is great to be alive and kicking come 2010.

Not everyone are revelers or involved in the heat of a countdown to 2010. We observe the birth of 2010 in own own way. Some in quiet solitude; others in prayers for a better 2010. Together with my family,I watched the firework displays on the horizon of the cityscape from the balcony of my humble abode.

I wonder how many of us raised a cup of kindness for Auld Lang Syne?

I used to have a beer with my friend M to bring in the new year at midnight almost annually at one time before I got married. After a brief chat, we will wish each other all the best for the new year, hoping that God will bestow on us, good tidings,successful ventures,daily protection and physical, mental and spiritual strength in the new year.


To all of us who have survived 2009, I wish you all the best and may 2010 be another empty page to write on your accolades.

Brilliant Firework Displays to Welcome 2010

I think these are great pictures of firework displays ushering in 2010 from many places in the world. See for yourself!

A Shitty Christmas for Edison

Just fancy that!

Instead of Santa and his presents, Edison Chen, notorious for his unsolicited sexual exposure on the Internet in 2008,almost got a bucket of pooh on him.

Our Sin Chew Daily reported that a man held a bucket of human excrement, hoping to dump it over Edison on stage.

Fortunately, hawk-eyed Edison spotted it and moved away quickly. He came away with only a few specks of it on his clothes.

The incident shook the Chinese entertainment world just like the exposure of Chen’s sex photos scandal last year. That bucketman was arrested.

China: Expecting 9.5% GDP in 2010

Reuters reported today that the State Council Development Research Centre (SCDRC),a leading state think-tank, has said that China’s economy would remain robust, as market-driven investment picked up while government-led stimulus spending slowed.They predict China’s economy to grow 9.5 per cent in 2010, topping 2009's expected figure, as real estate investment buoys growth and inflation remains mild.

“In 2010 the external (economic) environment will remain quite grim, but it will not deteriorate any further,” said the Centre’s report, which was published in the Chinese-language China Economic Times.

“Against a backdrop of ample production and supplies, we forecast that in 2010 there will not be marked inflation,” it said, adding that the CPI inflation index was likely to stay less than 3 percent for 2010.

The report adds to recent signs that Chinese officials and many experts are guardedly confident the country’s economy can maintain momentum in 2010, surmounting worries about inflation, investment policy and a heady housing market.

The country’s 4 trillion yuan stimulus package, complemented by a record surge in bank lending, propelled the economy to 8.9 per cent year-on-year growth in the third quarter of 2009.

While the government stimulus spending will fall off this year, investment in real estate could grow by 30 to 40 percent compared with 2009, and “become a main force driving investment growth,” said the new report, written by Zhang Liqun, a macro-economist in the Centre, which advises the government.

China’s manufacturing sector steamed ahead in December with rises in new orders and output driving the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) to 56.6 in December from 55.2 in the previous month, pushing the key indicator to a 20-month high.

Some cities in China have seen residential property prices rise by about a third this year, and real estate investment in China accelerated in November, up 17.8 percent for the first 11 months of 2009 compared with the same months in 2008.

Zhang said investment in real estate would remain strong, even as growing supply of new housing cooled price rises, especially from later in 2010.