Thursday, September 20, 2012

News Bits | 20 Sept 2012


Highlights of the day
§  Economics (Consumer Price Index): August 2012: Not even Raya could push inflation up [download report]
August consumer price index maintained its pace at 1.4% y-o-y growth from the previous month. While food inflation did accelerate during the month of Ramadan which caused moving seasonality, the increase was offset by decelerating inflation and deflation in other components of the CPI. August core inflation dropped further to 1.1% y-o-y from 1.3% in July. We expect headline inflation to drop to 1.2% y-o-y while the core inflation to remain at 1.1% in September 2012.
 
§  Economics (Leading Economic Indicator): July 2012: We are already in a (mildly) rough patch [download report]
July leading indicator grew faster by growing 2.3% y-o-y from 2.0%. So, the Malaysian economy may set to grow comfortably. The coincident index for the month however painted a different picture as it stagnated on y-o-y basis and declined by 0.6% m-o-m. Together with bad export figures and weak industrial production data, this is suggestive of a relatively weak 3Q2012 in terms of real GDP growth. At the moment, we are expecting 2012 real GDP to grow by 4.6%.
 
Other reports
§  Newz Bits [download report]
 
Other Malaysian news
§  IPO: Astro sets price range for RM4.56bn IPO
§  Genting: To reduce stake in Aussie casino
§  AirAsia: Expedia JV sees online purchase boom
§  Berjaya Land: In Japan venture
§  Tradewinds Plantation: Acquire 50,000ha over 5 years
§  WCT: Leads race for RM700m job
§  Mah Sing: Seeking more land
§  KNM: Gets RM100m to acquire UK land
§  OldTown: Plans private placement to fund capex and working capital
§  Cocoaland: Investing RM74m to raise output
§  Petra Energy: Close to bagging RSC
§  Poh Kong: Eyes Asean marts
 
Global news
§  US: Housing starts climbed 2.3% to 750k annual rate
§  US: Sales of previously owned homes increase
§  Europe: Greece, Troika agree on most of austerity package
§  Europe: BOE unanimous on QE amid divisions on inflation risks
§  Japan: Bank of Japan enlarges policy toolkit as inflation goal recedes
 
 
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