Morning Coffee - 26 Jun 2012

MARKET ROUNDUP (Source Bloomberg)

U.S. Stocks Drop On Europe As Crisis Threatens Earnings: U.S. stocks tumbled on concern this week’s European Union summit will fail to tame a crisis which put American earnings on pace for the first decline since 2009. Technology, financial and energy shares dropped the most among 10 groups in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. The S&P 500 slid 1.6 percent to 1,313.72 as 470 of its 500 stocks declined. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 138.12 points, or 1.1 percent, to 12,502.66. Volume for exchange-listed stocks in the U.S. was about 5.9 billion shares, or 13 percent below the three-month average.

European Stock Fall Before Summit As Soros Warns On Euro: Billionaire investor George Soros called on Europe to start a fund to buy Italian and Spanish bonds, saying policy makers should create a European Fiscal Authority to purchase the debt in return for the countries implementing achievable budget cuts. France’s CAC 40 fell 2.2 percent, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 slid 1.1 percent and Germany’s DAX lost 2.1 percent.

Oil Declines Below $80 For A Third Day On Euro-Zone Debt: on concern that a meeting of European Union leaders this week will fail to check the region’s debt crisis, leading to a reduction in fuel demand. Futures dropped 0.7 percent as George Soros warned that a failure by EU leaders to produce drastic measures may spell the demise of the bloc’s shared currency. Crude climbed earlier as oil and gas installations in the Gulf of Mexico were shut because of Tropical Storm Debby. Prices slid as the storm moved toward Florida and away from energy fields.

Oil for August delivery declined 55 cents to settle at $79.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures are down 20 percent this year. Prices have fallen 23 percent since the end of March, heading for the biggest quarterly decline since the final three months of 2008.

CORPORATE NEWS

FGVH posts lower Q1 net profit of RM223m: has reported a 36.3% drop in net profit for its first quarter ended March 31, 2012 to RM223.2 million on higher cost of sales and administrative expenses as well as fair value changes in the Land Lease Agreement liability.

Bernas to spend RM250m on acquisitions, capex: for new acquisitions and capital expenditure (capex) to upgrade its rice mills this year. Bernas, which currently operates 32 mills, is looking at acquiring up to three mills over the next few years. The group expects its earnings to slightly improve this year, due to increased volume compared with 2011 and with the price of local padi remaining stable at between RM1,000 and RM1,220 per tonne in the peninsula. Bernas' share of the local padi market
stands at 33%.

Handal bags RM150m crane deal from ExxonMobil: has bagged its fourth contract worth RM150 million from ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc to provide integrated crane services to the latter's offshore Malaysia operations. Handal's first contract with ExxonMobil was in 1995. Under the
deal, Handal's unit Handal Offshore Services Sdn Bhd will repair, maintain and overhaul ExxonMobil's offshore cranes from now until 2017, with an option to extend by another year.

SunBiz

Kelington sees more earnings: which installs ultra-high purity gas and chemical infrastructure, expects contribution to earnings from recently acquired Puritech Tech Ltd in the second half of this year. Apart from Malaysia, Kelington has operations in Singapore, China and Taiwan. The company's overseas business accounted for about 70% of Kelingotn's total earnings. Singapore-based Puritec, which was acquired in February this year, specialises in the design and installation of delivery systems for exhausts.

Top Glove unit to buy PT Agro stake for RM22mil: whollyowned sub-subsidiary,Best Advance Resources Ltd, will acquire 95% equity or 5,700 shares inPT Agro Pramata Sejahtera for RM22mil.

Investment in paper and printing stays at RM533mil: from January to April this year, the investment in the paper and printing industries had already hit RM264.9mil.

StarBiz

Muhibbah Engr in deal with Favelle Favco: Muhibbah Engineering (M) Bhd (MEB) entered into a conditional sale and purchase agreement with Favelle Favco Bhd (FFB) for a proposed disposal of a crane fabrication yard in New South Wales, Australia, for RM48 million. The yard comprises a large industrial factory used by FFB for crane fabricating/manufacturing on around 4.684ha industrial land
parcel.

New steel mill in Lumut: Maegma Steel HRC Sdn Bhd director Tunku Shaharuddin Tunku Mahmud said the company would be investing RM4.5 billion in the first phase of the project to build the plant, which would have the capacity to produce some
1.5 million tonnes of thin metal sheets, or "Hot Roll Coils" (HRC), a year.

Source:Jupiter Securities Research 26 June 2012