The local stock alternated between up and down days to close almost unchanged for the week. The KLCI ended the week roughly flat at 866.1 points, down just 2.8 points or 0.3%.

In the preceding week, the KLCI and Asian bourses had outperformed Wall Street strongly, staying resilient and chalking up gains even as the major US indices slumped. Last week, the reverse happened.

The divergence perhaps stems from profit-taking activities and concerns over whether Wall Street’s rally was sustainable in the light of the deteriorating global economy. Investors here also had to digest weak corporate earnings and other local leads.

Wall Street chalked up several consecutive days of strong gains. This came after the government guaranteed Citigroup’s assets and investors cheered a plan by the Federal Reserve to lend up to US$200 billion (RM726 billion) to back the issuance of debt, including for student, auto and credit-card loans.

These measures overshadowed continued weak economic data. The US economy contracted at a faster than expected 0.5% annual rate in the third quarter, and home prices continue to fall. Prices in 20 major US cities fell by 1.8% m-m in September and by a record 17.4% for the year.
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KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia is likely to escape a recession next year and post a modest growth despite the global financial crisis due to strong consumer demand and public spending, the central bank said Friday.

“We expect to have positive growth next year,” central bank governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz told reporters.

Malaysia’s top trading partner neighbouring Singapore and Asia’s largest economy Japan are already in a recession.

Zeti said if the global financial crisis does not worsen, Malaysia would post a growth of 3.5 per cent in 2009.

“Domestic demand has become the engine of growth. Our financial system is not facing the financial stress. We have ample liquidity in the system.

“We have no large-scale retrenchments. We are creating jobs. We are in an economy where there is no asset burst,” she added.
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KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 29 (Bernama) — The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) futures contracts are expected to be subdued next week as there is lack of positive impetus to spur the market, a dealer said.

He said the movement on the futures contracts will also be influenced by, among others, Wall Street’s reaction to new developments in the US economy.

On a week-to-week basis, spot month November 2008 added four points to 873.0 from 869.0 last Friday, while December 2008 added 10.5 points to 873.5, March 2008 gained 13.5 points to 852.5 and June 2008 jumped 13.5 points to 829.5.

The weekly turnover rose to 91,515 lots from 37,297 lots last week.
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Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) — Genting Bhd., Asia’s largest listed casino operator, posted a quarterly loss of 40.4 million ringgit ($11.2 million) compared with a profit of 275.2 million ringgit a year ago, after taking charges related to its Chinese power plants and casinos in the U.K.

Net loss for the three months ended September was 1.09 sen per share compared with earnings per share of 7.45 sen a year earlier, the company said in a statement today. Revenue grew 7 percent to 2.37 billion ringgit.

Genting, which gets two-thirds of its sales from hotels, gambling and theme parks, has invested in businesses that include power generation and palm oil to manage swings in casino revenue. The Kuala Lumpur-based company expects the rest of the year to be “challenging.”

“The group’s prospects for the remaining period of this year will be challenging, in view of the global economic slowdown and lower commodity prices anticipated,” Genting said. “The slowdown in the local economy could impact consumer sentiments and may affect visitations to Genting Highlands Resort. In the U.K., the general economic outlook is expected to be poor.”

Pretax profit at the plantations unit, its second-biggest earner, fell to 130.8 million ringgit from 131.3 million ringgit. Profit at its power division plunged 96 percent to 5.5 million ringgit.
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Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) — Proton Holdings Bhd., Malaysia’s state-owned carmaker, climbed the most in 17 months on the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange after second-quarter profit jumped.

The stock rose 6.7 percent to 1.92 ringgit at 9:29 a.m. local time, set for the largest daily gain since June 7, 2007.

Profit in the three months ended Sept. 30 jumped to 43.8 million ringgit ($12 million) from 3.51 million ringgit a year earlier after the company released new models, Proton said in a statement late yesterday. Sales climbed 41 percent to 1.84 billion ringgit.

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KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Malaysian engineer and builder IJM Corp (IJMS.KL: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) reported a 4.5 percent fall in second-quarter net profit on Tuesday due to the increasing cost of materials at its construction division.

Robust revenues from the group’s plantations, industry and property divisions, however, helped to limit the fall in profit.

“The margins in the group’s construction division continues to be under pressure mainly attributed to escalating input costs,” IJM said in a filing with the stock exchange, adding that high costs will further affect its building division.
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Share prices on Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trade lower today, led by the drop in the Industrial Index but losses were capped by mild bargain-hunting, dealers said.
Sentiment in the local market was dampened by the overnight mixed performance on Wall Street, one of the dealers said.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) shed 9.46 points to 850.72. It had opened 2.29 points lower at 857.89.

During the morning trading session, the index touched a low of 848.03, down 12.15 points or 1.41 per cent.

At noon break, the Industrial Index narrowed 36.31 points to 2,030.00, the Finance Index slipped 93.91 points to 6,509.72 and the Plantation Index went down 1.52 points to 3,736.67.
The FBMEmas declined 46.77 points to 5,612.68, the FBM30 shed 47.37 points to 5,542.22, the FBMMesdaq Index dropped 28.85 points to 3,320.19 and the FBM2BRD was 164.32 points lower at 4,139.88.

Decliners led advancers 242 to 121 while 188 counters were unchanged, 764 still untraded and 32 others suspended.

Trading was lacklustre with a volume of 185.707 million shares worth RM313.47 million.

Ramunia shares declined 39 sen to 91 sen after MISC called off a reverse takeover. MISC shares, however, added five sen to RM8.30.
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Investors can ride out volatile stock market with steady income (Source: The Star Online)

AT times of financial crisis, cash is king, or so the adage goes. But with inflation eating up interest gained from bank deposits, investors looking for real returns on their money should take a second look at prevailing equity prices.

And yes, it is a hard sell to talk about investing in stocks given the pessimistic outlook on the economy and financial markets these days.

CLSA Asia Pacific last week slashed its target level for the KL Composite Index (KLCI) to below 800 points for next year as companies’ earnings outlook turned bleaker. The firm recommended Resorts World Bhd, DiGi.com Bhd and British American Tobacco (M) Bhd (BAT) as “must-have” stocks to ride out the economic downturn, while Genting Bhd and YTL Power Bhd were for those with a higher risk appetite.

The defensive strategy was also the key theme in J.P. Morgan Asia Pacific Research’s 2009 outlook on local stocks. The 65-page report dated Nov 18 said it expected best-in-class firms such as Bumiputra-Commerce Holdings Bhd (BCHB), DiGi.com, IOI Corp Bhd, Resorts World and Tanjong plc to outperform the market when “risk appetite returns.’’
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KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 21 (Bernama) — The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI)futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed higher Friday, mirroring the mild gains on the cash market, dealers said.

The KLCI futures for spot month November 2008 and nearby month, December 2008, rose 14.0 points each to settle at 869.0 and 863.0, respectively.

For other contract months, March 2009 surged 15.5 points to 839.0 and June 2009 advanced 15.0 points to 816.0.

The day’s volume was higher at 9,014 lots compared with 7,447 lots transacted on Thursday while open interests increased to 24,013 contracts from 23,803 yesterday.

The underlying KLCI on the cash market closed at 866.88, up 1.56 points.

– BERNAMA

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News Source: The Star Online

KUALA LUMPUR: Major Asian markets staged a recovery in the late morning on Friday, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rising 4.5%, reversing from an earlier 3.9% loss, as an improved sentiment also helped the local stock market.

The Bank of Japan held its benchmark interest rate at 0.3% and said it would consider pumping more money into the financial system to prop up an economy, which entered into recession last quarter, according to a Bloomberg report.

At 12.30pm, the KL Composite Index was down 4.27 points to 861.05, off the early low of 853.

Turnover was 337.41 million shares valued at RM285.44mil. There were 119 gainers, 307 losers while 158 counters were unchanged.
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