Morning Coffee - 25 July 2012

MARKET ROUNDUP (Source Bloomberg)

U.S. Stocks Fall Third Day Amid Europe Concern; amid concern Europe’s debt crisis is worsening and after United Parcel Service Inc. lowered its earnings forecast. More than three stocks fell for each rising on U.S. exchanges. The S&P 500 slipped 0.9 percent to 1,338.31, paring a loss of 1.6 percent. The benchmark measure decreased 2.8 percent in three days.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 104.14 points, or 0.8 percent, to 12,617.32. Volume for exchange-listed stocks in the U.S. was 6.8 billion shares, or about in line with the three-month average.

European Stocks Slide As Germany Outlook Lowered: as Moody’s Investors Service lowered its credit outlook for Germany and a measure of manufacturing in the Richmond region of the U.S. plunged. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index slid 0.6
percent, while Germany’s DAX Index declined 0.5 percent. France’s CAC 40 Index dropped 0.9 percent.

Oil Rises For First Time In Three Days On Mideast, China: as clashes in Syria raised tension in the Middle East and a report indicated China’s manufacturing may contract at a slower pace in July. Crude oil for September delivery rose 36 cents to settle at $88.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are down 10 percent this year.

Cuscapi to see growth overseas: The solutions provider's net profit fell 71% to RM567,000 for its first quarter ended March 31, 2012 from RM2 million a year ago, dragged down by delays in uncompleted projects. Revenue fell 21% to RM12.1 million from RM15.4 million. Its subsidiary Cuscapi Philippines Inc had on Monday proposed to acquire Tills N Labels System MarketingInc (TNL) from several individuals for RM6.4 million

M’sian ports on track to meet 5% growth target for 2012: alaysian ports, which handled 4.9% more containers in the first half of this year (H12012) from a year ago, are on track to achieve their 5% growth target in container handling for the full year. This year's growth, however, is expected to be significantly
lower than the double-digit growth of 11% recorded in 2011, when container traffic at the 11 major ports in the country rose to 20.2 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) from 18.1 million TEUs in 2010.

SunBiz

Brahim's expands into Japan: Brahim's Food Japan (BFJ) will be the Japan branch of Brahim's Dewina Group of Companies to facilitate distribution of Brahim's products in Japan. 18 products would initially be on offer for the Japanese market.They include Brahim's Malaysian Nyonya Sauce, Brahim's Spicy Tomato Sauce, and Brahim's Chicken Curry with Potatoes.

Btimes

Axiata buys 51% stake in DMSB: through wholly-owned subsidiary company Celcom Axiata Bhd, has acquired 51% stake in Digital Milestone Sdn Bhd (DMSB). After the acquisition of 255,000 ordinary shares of RM1 each, DMSB has become a subsidiary of Axiata held via Celcom. The agreement between Celcom and German’s largest media and broadcasting fullservice provider Media Broadcast GmbH was to establish a joint-venture entity and jointly pre-bid activities and formulation of bid for the development, supply, commissioning, marketing and operation of digital television transmission infrastructure in Malaysia via a common infrastructure provider for the digital terrestrial transmission services to be rolled out under Malaysia’s national digitisation project.

BizTheStar

Source:Jupiter Securities Research 25 July 2012