Morning Coffee - 15 Jun 2012

MARKET ROUNDUP (Source Bloomberg)
U.S. Stocks Rise On Reports Policy Makers May Take Action: amid reports policy makers may take steps to assist economies battered by Europe’s sovereign debt crisis. The S&P 500 gained 1.1 percent to 1,329.10. The benchmark index for American equities is up 0.3 percent for the week. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average rose 155.53 points, or 1.2 percent, to 12,651.91 today. Trading volume for exchange-listed stocks in the U.S. was about 6.6 billion shares, 2.5 percent below the three-month average.

European Stocks Fall A Second Day; BSkyB, BT Group Slide: as Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Spain and Cyprus, while Switzerland’s central bank said that Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) must increase its capital this year. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.3 percent and Germany’s DAX slipped 0.2 percent. France’s benchmark CAC 40 added 0.1 percent.

Oil Climbs Most In Two Months On Stimulus Speculation: the Federal Reserve will loosen monetary policy to spur growth and as OPEC members were asked to cut production that exceeds their current output ceiling. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, July crude rose $1.29, or 1.56 percent, to settle at $83.91 a barrel.

CORPORATE NEWS

Maxwell to build factory in China: plans to build a new 150,000-sq m factory in Henan Province, China for some RMB334.5 million (RM167.2 million), which will double its annual production capacity to 16 million pairs of sports shoes from the current 8 million pairs. Today, the China-based sports shoe maker's unit Jinjiang Zhenxing Shoes & Plastics Co Ltd acquired an 171,576-sq m industrial land in Henan Province from the Qixian Government there for RMB34.5 million or RMB 201.08 per sq m.

Axis-REIT to acquire Wisma Academy and the Annex in PJ for RM85m: he proposed acquisitions will also enable Axis-REIT to diversify and enlarge its portfolio of properties and is expected to benefit the trust in the long-term as a result of economies of scale. Wisma Academy is a 34,751 sq m six-storey office/warehouse building with a penthouse and a two-storey basement car park. The Annex is a double-storey showroom, annexed with a single-storey warehouse with a gross floor area of 3,456 sq m.

Hibiscus Petroleum appoints Tay Chin Kwang as director: Tay, a Singaporean, 46, is currently the finance director of Ezra Holdings Ltd, a leading offshore contractor and provider of integrated offshore solutions for the oil and gas industry listed on the Singapore Exchange.

Total order book stands at RM149.3m: Genetec- has secured new orders worth RM36.9 million, bringing its total order book to RM149.3 million.The new orders comprises RM28.1 million from the hard disk drive (HDD) sector, and the rest from non-HDD sectors namely automotive, food and consumer, semiconductor and original equipment manufacturing.

-SunBiz

Ramunia unit wins RM177.5mil job: wholly-owned subsidiary Ramunia Fabricators Sdn Bhd (RFSB) has been awarded RM177.5mil worth of contracts by Sarawak Shell Bhd (SSB). Ramunia Holdings said the contracts were one-off with expected delivery to SSB within the second quarter of calendar year 2013.

Weaker pound spurring Takaful Malaysia to buy London properties: the Islamic insurance company, which has assets worth more than RM6bil at group level, is expected to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in Labuan International Offshore Financial Centre (IOFC) to act as a special-purpose vehicle (SPV) to invest and hold its overseas property investment. Returns on London property investments, which were steady at between 5% and 7% annually and therefore relatively attractive given that London had one of the lowest borrowing costs
around.

-StarBiz

Sime to spend RM1.4b on Weifang port: The investment will help Weifang Sime Darby Port raise its capacity from about 18 million tonnes of cargo a year to over 50 million tonnes by 2017. Pos Malaysia looks to grow income streams: will spend RM150 million annually over the next five years to diversify its revenue streams. Group chief executive officer Datuk Khalid Abdol Rahman said its cash position was strong at RM409.9 million as at March 31 2012 with zero gearing. The group will also be embarking on a syariah-compliant pawnbroking business soon under a separate entity

Btimes

Source:Jupiter Securities Research 15 June 2012