Monday, September 10, 2012

News Bits | 10 Sept 2012

Highlights of the day
§  Malaysia Market Strategy: Stock-rating changes due to threshold change [download report]
We are revising our rating definitions by reducing the threshold from ± 15% to ± 10% for a HOLD rating based on expected 12-month total return (capital return + net dividend yield).  Bear in mind that rating definitions are just a guide, as different research houses have different definitions, and many are not absolute but tied to expected benchmark returns which are variable.  Arising from this change in rating definition, we are downgrading Maxis and Top Glove from HOLD to SELL..
 
§  Economics (External Trade): July 2012: A bad start for 3Q [download report]
Global demand continued to falter with Malaysian exports in July falling by 1.9% y-o-y after rising by 5.4% in June. The contraction is attributable to the economic recession in Europe and the slowdown in China. On the bright side, domestic demand grew strongly as evident by the fact that imports rose by 9.5% y-o-y after increasing by 3.6% in the previous month. The growth divergence caused the trade surplus to shrink to MYR3.6bn, which is the lowest level since May 2002. July total trade grew by 3.3% y-o-y nonetheless. Future trade growth will likely be supported by import growth due to the healthy domestic demand. We project August exports and imports to grow faster by 2.2% y-o-y and 9.9% respectively. Hence, we project August surplus to be MYR7.6bn..
 
Other reports
§  Newz Bits [download report]
 
Other Malaysian news
§  Air Asia: Close to new major Airbus deal
§  IJM Land: Sees FY2013 property sales over RM1.4bn
§  Gas Malaysia: Eyes overseas opportunities
§  TSH: Uphill battle for Pontian United
§  Perwaja: Clinches deal
§  TRC: Wins RM284m construction job
§  Bolton: Plans to divest retail assets
§  Lion Diversified: Creditors hold key to its fate
§  Gadang: Hands over Runway 3 at KLIA2, upbeat on winning more contracts
§  Securities Commission: Launches Malaysian retail bonds and sukuk framework
§  Banking: Banks may reduce derivative trading with US due to new rules
§  Oil & Gas: Petronas beefing up capex
§  Port: Penang cargo tonnage dropped 17%
§  Property: Oversupply of residential property may slow down market
§  REIT: Tax break for M-REITs
§  EPF: Expects >10% returns from Battersea
§  Economy: Malaysia reserves at RM431bn
§  Economy: Malaysia-China trade to hit US$100bn
 
Global news
§  US: Job growth cools
§  Europe: Hollande outlines austerity plan
§  Europe: Greek coalition partner says no decision taken on spending cuts
§  China: Slowing output
 
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