theSun | TUESDAY MAY 5 2009 13

1,009.36 S
18.62 Nikkei CLOSED
business KLCI
STI 2,028.71 108.43
S TSEC 6,330.40 337.83
S
Hang Seng 16,381.05 860.06
S KOSPI 1,397.92 S
28.56
SCI 2,559.91 S
82.34 S&P/ASX200 3,883.00 113.40
S

KL market summary MAY 4, 2009

INDICES CHANGE
Prices up on improved sentiment FBMEMAS
COMPOSITE
6,684.41
1,009.36
+142.55
+18.62
SHARE prices on Bursa RM8.55 and Public Bank rose seven sen to 64.5 sen, INDUSTRIAL 2,277.64 +21.54
Malaysia continued the bull 20 sen to RM8.55. while TA-WB and Ramunia CONSUMER PROD 303.63 +0.31
run yesterday on improved The dealers said the increased 1.5 sen each to 4.5 INDUSTRIAL PROD 76.09 +1.77
CONSTRUCTION 195.56 +5.96
sentiment with strong buying market started the day on sen and 63 sen respectively TRADING SERVICES 136.35 +2.61
interest in selected blue chips a strong note in view of im- and Palette edged up one sen FINANCE 7,728.84 +189.81
especially financial counters, proving health in the global to five sen. PROPERTIES 630.12 +8.84
dealers said. economy. Of the heavyweights, PLANTATIONS 5,060.15 +78.31
The KLCI cloded 18.62 Gainers outnumbered los- Sime Darby advanced 10 sen MINING 273.57 +18.24
points higher at 1,009.36 after ers by 536 to 153 while 156 to RM6.70, Tenaga was flat FBMSHA 7,014.22 +127.45
opening 2.14 points higher at counters were unchanged, at RM7.35, IOI Corp added FBM2BRD 4,326.13 +20.40
TECHNOLOGY 13.58 +0.68

999.44 in the morning.
Maybank closed 12 sen
higher at RM4.46, Bumiputra-
Commerce added 50 sen to
briefs
393 untraded and 36 others 12 sen to RM4.42, MISC
suspended. increased 10 sen to RM8.60 TURNOVER VALUE
Topping the most active and Axiata jumped 15 sen to
1.748bil RM1.619bil
list was KNM which rose RM2.35. – Bernama
ADB and China Eximbank
sign US$3bil pact
NUSA DUA: The Asian Development Bank and the Ex-

CI breaches 1,000-point port-Import Bank of China signed a US$3 billion (RM10.65

billion) co-financing agreement yesterday for projects in
developing Asian nations, the bank said in a statement.
The agreement “aims to make it simpler for govern-
ments, sub-sovereign borrowers and private firms to
access financing, particularly for infrastructure projects,”

psychological barrier
KUALA LUMPUR: Rising optimism over
the improving health of the global economy
plus strong gains on heavyweights led to the
benchmark KLCI breaching the 1,000-point
psychological barrier yesterday.
The CI ended 18.62 points higher at 1,009.36
yesterday. The last time Bursa Malaysia hit the
above-1,000 level was in October last year.
Some analysts are now projecting the CI to
touch 1,077 points by next month.
However, Shahrul Kamal Ramli, who is with
equity sales for Macquarie Securities Group, said
technical indicators and the flood of liquidity in
the market seemed to point towards a modest
room for upside before correction sets in.
“KLCI had a strong run-up since March. We
are now in a base-building process where most
emerging markets may confirm the extending
uptrend towards year-end as falling interest
rates and easing inflation make equities more
attractive than before,” he told Bernama yes-
terday.
“While an intermittent correction is still likely,
the increasingly positive sentiment worldwide
prompts any market dip as a chance to buy on
weakness,” he added.
Shahrul said the global markets had
strengthened as investors chose to focus only
on positive economic data while ignoring the
negative and Malaysia too had a fair share of
market-moving news.
Among the stirring news was the announce-
ment of RM5 billion for Valuecap Sdn Bhd to buy
undervalued stocks in the local bourse. This was
followed by the second stimulus package, while
Bank Negara Malaysia also did a string of rate
cuts, and further liberalised the services sector.
The political situation in the country has also
taken a turn for better.
The government continued with its efforts to
boost investment and make the services sector
more competitive.
“The decisions came amid official warnings
that the economy could shrink by as much as
1% this year.”
Malaysia was also hard hit by the global
economic crisis, with exports down 15.9% in
February from a year ago.
Shahrul said liberalising the services sector
was also a good move. “The services sector
is the largest, contributing 55% to Malaysia’s
gross domestic product last year.”
The move to rely on services to contribute
at least 60% is crucial as it would lessen the
country’s reliance on electronics exports and
commodities, Shahrul said.
However, he said despite the present
positive sentiment, global equities markets may
turn volatile later this week when the Federal
Reserve is scheduled to release its findings on
bank stress tests, which will show how many
US banks lack sufficient reserves.
Investors will also get a clearer picture of the
US job market on Friday with the release of the
April unemployment report, he said.
“Late last year, foreign selling was at its
peak.
“Foreign investors do nibble on their small
positions but are yet to re-enter the KL market
in a major way. Foreign funds view Malaysia
as slightly expensive compared with other
markets.
“Signs of moderation in the pace of decline
in economic activities have emerged and the
domestic economy is expected to improve in the
second half of the year. Until then, the key buyers
of KL market remain mostly local,” he said.
Jupiter Securities Sdn Bhd head of research
Pong Teng Siew said the local market had en-
tered into a small bull run since March this year
with 20% increase in the CI.
“The uptrend in the KLCI is likely to continue
until middle of the year, supported by improving
liquidity in the market,” he told Bernama in a
telephone interview.
He said the additional units of Amanah
Saham Wawasan 2020 and Amanah Saham
Malaysia announced by Permodalan Nasional
Bhd recently helped to boost the market.
“A lot of funds in the market will make a
difference. If the index keeps on rising, there’s
a chance investors will invest in new funds,”
Pong said. – Bernama
the multilateral lender said.
The three-year agreement signed at the bank’s annual
board of governors meeting on Indonesia’s Bali island will
take effect from next month, it said.
“Access to sanitation, power and transportation links
is still very poor in many parts of Asia. Massive amounts
of funds are needed to address that if we are to reduce
poverty in the region,” ADB vice-president Ursula Schaefer-
Preuss said.
“This agreement with China Eximbank will ensure
funds get systematically directed towards those and
other urgent projects that will help the region weather
the current global downturn.” – AFP
SingTel wins A$500mil
contract with ANZ Bank
MELBOURNE: Singapore Telecommunications (Sing-
Tel) has won a A$500 million (RM1.3 billion) contract
to provide communication services to ANZ Banking
Corp.
SingTel and its Australian entity Optus will work
with ANZ in Australia and 30 other countries in the
Asia Pacific region for five years under the contract,
the Australian Associated Press (AAP) said.
SingTel said it would transform ANZ’s network
infrastructure to improve its global communication,
providing one platform for the delivery of voice, data
and managed services to ANZ’s 34,000 staff across
the region.
The company will deploy over 20,000 IP (internet
protocol) telephones and 40 video conferencing
units.
In Australia, Optus will oversee the implementa-
tion of a new data network to over 850 ANZ retail
branches, and manage its call centre infrastructure.
SingTel’s executive vice-president of business Bill
Chang said the contract win solidified the telco’s
position in Asia. – Bernama

ADB sees mild recovery next year

NUSA DUA (Indonesia): The Asian Development
Bank (ADB) called yesterday for a fundamental
“rebalancing” of regional economies in response
to the global crisis, while predicting a “mild re-
covery” next year.
Bank president Haruhiko Kuroda said the re-
gion would record only 3.4% growth this year but
could expect a rebound to around 6.% growth in
2010, as he opened the ADB’s board of governors
annual meeting in Bali.
“With strong national and regional efforts and
a mild recovery expected in the global economy
next year, developing Asia and the Pacific should
bounce back to about 6% growth in 2010,” he
said.
“These are positive signs, therefore this should
not be a time of despair.”
He outlined a huge expansion in the ADB’s
lending plans to help stimulate developing econo-
mies across Asia, after shareholders agreed last
week to triple the bank’s capital base in response
to the global downturn.
The bank will increase its overall lending as-
sistance to the region’s poorest countries by
more than US$10 billion (RM35.5 billion) in 2009
and 2010, including three billion to meet “urgent
needs stemming from the crisis,” Kuroda said.
Some of that new lending would aim to help
Asian economies adjust to plunging demand for
their exports to markets such as Europe and the
United States.
“The transfer of savings from one part of the
world to another worked well when advanced
economies could absorb production from de-
veloping economies, but the current state of the
global economy suggests that era has passed,”
Kuroda said.
“By rebalancing export-driven growth with
a greater reliance on domestic demand and
consumption, Asia can lead the way in charting
a new, globally beneficial development course,”
he said.
Interest rate cuts and government spending
will help spur the recovery in Asia, whose banks
are not suffering problems on the same scale as
their US and European peers, according to the
International Monetary Fund.
Recent economic data have raised hopes that
China could be the first major economy to disen-
tangle itself from the worldwide crisis, providing
new growth momentum for its trading partners
across the region.
In India, expectations of a healthy harvest
fuelling consumer spending has driven India’s
benchmark Sensex share index to a six-month
high as fund managers switch their country rat-
ings to “overweight” from “underweight”.
Japan’s factory output rose 1.6% in March
from the previous month, the first increase
since September, triggering a buying spree on
the Japanese sharemarket last week.
Kuroda also called for changes to the global
financial architecture to give voice to the aspira-
tions of Asia, where powerhouses like China and
India are emerging as rivals to US domination of
the world economy. – AFP