July inflation rate highest in 27 years

PETALING JAYA: The consumer price index (CPI) jumped to 8.5% in July from a year earlier, the highest in nearly 27 years, fuelled by the increase in the price of petrol and electricity tariffs. CIMB Research head Lee Heng Guie said: “This exceeds our expectations. It clearly shows the impact of the increase in fuel and electricity prices and continued strong food prices.” He said inflation was likely to peak this month or next before easing in the final quarter. “We expect the inflation rate in 2009 to be much lower than this year’s, but it will...

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US stocks fall sharply amid financial sector concerns

NEW YORK: Wall Street slid Tuesday as downbeat news from JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other financial companies lifted the market's anxiety about the continuing impact of the credit crisis on the economy. The Dow Jones industrials fell nearly 140 points. The latest reminder of continuing troubles for banks and brokerages came when JPMorgan said late Monday it has incurred wider losses in its mortgage holdings so far in the third quarter than in the second quarter. The second-largest U.S. bank by assets said in a regulatory filing it lost $1.5 billion,...

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US stocks end higher, extending last week's gains

NEW YORK: US Stocks ended higher Monday but well off their peak after crude oil prices pulled off their lows and the Federal Reserve said more banks are tightening lending standards. The decline in oil since last month has eased investors' concerns about the drag of rising prices on the economy, but its move off its lowest levels Monday deflated a stock market rally that built upon steep gains last week. Light, sweet crude fell 75 cents to settle at $114.45 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after dipping to $112.72, its lowest price...

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Bank Negara to prevent fundamental slowdown

KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz says there would be a moderation of economic growth but the central bank will try to prevent the country from slipping into a “fundamental” economic slowdown. She said that a fundamental economic slowdown would occur when there was an increase in unemployment. Zeti said several central banks particularly in the developed countries have also highlighted the risk of its deepening economy slowdown. “The risk of slowing economic growth is real and must taken seriously,” she said after launching...

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Invisibility cloak one step closer, scientists say

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have created two new types of materials that can bend light the wrong way, creating the first step toward an invisibility cloaking device. One approach uses a type of fishnet of metal layers to reverse the direction of light, while another uses tiny silver wires, both at the nanoscale level. Both are so-called metamaterials -- artificially engineered structures that have properties not seen in nature, such as negative refractive index. The two teams were working separately under the direction of Xiang Zhang of...

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BCHB, Bursa lead blue chips higher

KUALA LUMPUR: BCHB and Bursa led blue chips higher in early trade on Monday but overall market sentiment was still cautious after last Friday’s decline and as investors awaited more corporate earnings this month. At 9.30am, the KLCI was up 3.9 points to 1,124.21. Turnover was 51.48 million shares valued at RM66.13mil. Light crude oil was trading at US$115.60 while the ringgit continued to weaken to RM3.31 against the greenback. Japan’s Nikkei 225 surged 1.85% or 244 points to 13,412.42 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index jumped 1.13% to 2,839.19...

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Ringgit falls below 3.30 against US dollar

PETALING JAYA: The ringgit fell below 3.30 against the US dollar for the first time in eight months, pressured by foreign sell down on local stocks and bonds. The ringgit fell as much as 0.7% to 3.309 to the greenback yesterday, and was at 3.3012 at 5pm. At yesterday’s level, the local unit was back to where it was at the start of the year. Economists expected further pressure on the ringgit, on the increasing likelihood that Bank Negara would keep interest rates at current levels as prices of crude oil and other commodities declined. The weak...

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Bursa Securities reprimands Haisan, KBES, Ta Win and KYM

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd has publicly reprimanded four companies -- Haisan Resources Bhd, KBES Bhd, Ta Win Holdings Bhd and KYM Holdings Bhd --- for breaching the listing requirements. The regulator had on Thursday directed the companies to carry out a limited review on their quarterly report submission due to sharp variations in their results. Bursa Securities said the limited review “must be performed by the company’s external auditors for four quarters commencing from the quarter subsequent to the date of this announcement”....

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Govt and TM likely to seal broadband deal on Aug 14

AFTER over a month's delay, the much awaited signing of the RM11.3bil high-speed broadband (HSBB) agreement between the Government and Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) is scheduled on August 14. Sources said the planning for the signing was well underway and “it is highly unlikely that there will be further delays”. TM and the Government were originally slated to seal the deal on July 1 but the signing was put on hold, as the Government then had not sorted out where the funding for its portion in HSBB will come from. “The funding part is resolved now...

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Malaysia set to become a major tuna player in Asia

VIGO (Spain): Malaysian International Tuna Port Sdn Bhd (MITP) has taken another step towards making Malaysia a major tuna player in Asia with the signing of a pact with an influential Spanish seafood industry organisation. Its Spanish collaborator is the National Fish and Seafood Canners Association (known by its Spanish acronym, Anfaco), which has over 190 member companies. MITP chief executive director Datuk Annuar Zaini Binyamin said this was...

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Axis shares plunge on heavy selling

KUALA LUMPUR: Axis Inc Bhd shares plunged on heavy selling as investors reacted to the company’s failure to meet the deadline to submit audited accounts for the financial year ended March 31. Coming out of Thursday’s trading suspension yesterday afternoon, the stock dropped to a low of 28 sen in the first half hour and closed at 30.5 sen, down 4.5 sen. In reply to a Bursa Malaysia query on July 31, Axis directors said its external auditor Messrs Horwath had disclosed in their draft financial statements full details of the material unresolved issues...

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Axis shares plunge on heavy selling

KUALA LUMPUR: Axis Inc Bhd shares plunged on heavy selling as investors reacted to the company’s failure to meet the deadline to submit audited accounts for the financial year ended March 31. Coming out of Thursday’s trading suspension yesterday afternoon, the stock dropped to a low of 28 sen in the first half hour and closed at 30.5 sen, down 4.5 sen. In reply to a Bursa Malaysia query on July 31, Axis directors said its external auditor Messrs Horwath had disclosed in their draft financial statements full details of the material unresolved issues...

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