The Star Online: Business
The Star Online: Business |
- Profit taking on Public Bank drags KLCI into the red
- China opens key meeting to set economic reform agenda
- Japan Display applies for up to $2 bln share listing
| Profit taking on Public Bank drags KLCI into the red Posted: KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's blue chips started the week in the red on Monday on some profit taking on stocks including Public Bank and SapuraKencana Petroleum which had a stellar performance in recent weeks. At 9.01am, the FBM KLCI was down 1.35 points to 1,803.13. Turnover was 47.05 million shares valued at RM19.39mil. There were 129 gainers, 40 losers and 115 counters unchanged. JF Apex Research said following the bullish performance in the US, it expects the KLCI to be positive on Monday with support from 1,800. BAT fell the most, down 40 sen to RM62.70 with just 100 shares done while Petronas Gas lost 12 sen to RM23.76. Public Bank fell 14 sen to RM18.18 while SapuraKencana losr five sen to RM4.26 and Genting Malaysia four sen lower at RM4.46. However, Genting Bhd helped shore up the KLCI with a 12 sen gain to RM10.44. Boilermech added 11 sen to RM2.50 with the recent corporate exercise. Recently listed Karex rose 10 sen to Rm2.85 while Barakah and its loan stocks added six sen each to RM1.16 and 92 sen. |
| China opens key meeting to set economic reform agenda Posted: BEIJING: Chinese leaders began a four-day secret meeting on Saturday to set a reform agenda for the next decade as they try to push more sustainable growth after three decades of breakneck expansion. However, analysts have cautioned against expectations for big changes as they say stability remains the watchword for the leadership. President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang must unleash new growth drivers as the world's second-largest economy loses steam, burdened by industrial overcapacity, piles of debt and soaring house prices. The meeting - held under tight security at a Soviet-era hotel in western Beijing - will show just how committed the new leadership is to reform after formally taking power in March. Economic reforms will dominate the meeting of the 205-member Central Committee of China's ruling Communist Party. Little if any news will be released during the event, but official news agency Xinhua traditionally issues a dispatch on the last day. Xinhua confirmed in an English-language dispatch that the meeting had begun, with the agenda led by a discussion over a draft document on deepening reform, "which pools the wisdom of the whole Party and from all aspects". It added: "Comprehensively deepening reform means the reform will be more systematic, integrated and coordinated." It gave no other details. Some media reports have said top policymakers could take bold steps to deal with entrenched vested interests, such as state monopolies. The Development Research Centre, a think-tank for China's cabinet, set out last month eight key areas for reform at the plenum - finance, taxation, land, state assets, social welfare, innovation, foreign investment and governance. "These are just recommendations. There is still strong opposition" to the proposed reforms, a source with ties to the leadership told Reuters, requesting anonymity. Powerful interest groups, including leftists or conservatives, local governments, state-owned enterprises and state banks, oppose some of the reforms such as freeing up interest rates, allowing private banks and turning Shanghai into a free trade zone, several sources say. However, the party will put on a unified face once Xinhua issues its communique at the end of the plenum on Tuesday, pledging reform without providing too many details. The People's Daily's influential tabloid, the Global Times, cautioned in an editorial on Saturday that the country's leaders would be unlikely to live up to the huge expectations. "They can hardly be as ambitious as some sections of the public hope. The most ambitious government in terms of reforms would still be considered conservative when faced with these expectations," it wrote. The government has pledged to let market forces play a bigger role in setting the price of capital, energy and land, and to cut red tape. That suggests the biggest changes may be fresh measures to free up interest rates and fiscal changes to let local governments to manage their debt better and move away from reliance on land sales for revenues. HAWKS AND DOVES In a bid to end the debate between hawks and doves, Xi declared in January that the second 30 years of Communist rule, when reforms transformed China into an economic powerhouse, should not be used to "negate" the first 30 years under Mao Zedong when chaos, poverty and hunger prevailed. Conservatives blame China's policy of reform during the second 30 years for a yawning wealth gap and other problems. Liberals revile Mao not just for the chaos of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, but also for the tens of millions who died in a man-made famine in the years after the 1958 Great Leap Forward. On the eve of the plenum, the party's history research office published a full-page article in the official People's Daily, repeating the warning against "negating" the two periods, a sign that debate still simmers. Adding to Xi's troubles, the political fallout from the downfall of Bo Xilai, a former contender for a seat at the apex of power, still haunts the party. Bo, disgraced party boss of the southwestern city of Chongqing, was jailed for life in September on charges of accepting bribes, corruption and abuse of power, but still has many supporters and sympathizers with his pro-Mao policies. A party document circulated this week urged officials to toe the line and learn from Bo's mistakes, sources said. They were told to conform with the party's decision to expel and prosecute Bo, a second source said. Underscoring the party's worries, supporters of Bo have set up a new political party, in a direct challenge to the de facto ban on new political groups. SOCIAL REFORMS The meeting may also decide to loosen the household registration system, which blocks migrant workers and their families from access to education and social welfare beyond their home villages. The system is seen as a hurdle to attracting more people to urban areas, a social equality trend the government seeks to promote as it looks to boost domestic consumption. The leaders may also push land reforms to allow farmers to sell land when they leave their villages. Currently, they cannot sell land freely and many do not leave their farms for fear local governments could grab them for development. While some social and political issues could be tackled, such as corruption and pollution, Western-style political reform is certainly not on the agenda. Historically, third plenums in China have served as a springboard for key economic reforms. Former leader Deng Xiaoping launched reforms to open the economy to the outside world at a third plenum in 1978. That was followed by a third plenum in 1993 that endorsed the "socialist" market economy, paving the way for sweeping reforms spearheaded by then Premier Zhu Rongji, which led to China's entry into the World Trade Organization. But the third plenum in 2003, under Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, predecessors of Xi and Li, failed to yield key reforms. In 2008, they unveiled a 4 trillion yuan ($656 billion) stimulus package, which fuelled a property frenzy and saddled local governments with debt of more than 10 trillion yuan the economy is still trying to absorb. - Reuters |
| Japan Display applies for up to $2 bln share listing Posted: TOKYO: Japan Display, the world's largest maker of displays for smartphones and tablets, has applied for a share listing in Tokyo that it hopes will raise up to 200 billion yen ($2 billion), sources familiar with the matter said on Saturday. The state-controlled company may face difficulty hitting its fund-raising target, however, after a sudden slowdown in its tablet screen business last month that could raise doubts over an expansion drive, industry sources have said. Japan Display has nevertheless decided to push ahead with plans for an initial public offering (IPO) by March and proceed with its expansion, one of the sources said, confident of continued growth in smartphone and tablet demand and its ability to find additional customers. Industry sources have said the capacity utilisation rate at its recently opened Mobara plant near Tokyo fell sharply in October, reflecting soft orders for tablets using its screens. This is likely to weigh on the company's earnings outlook and could dampen demand for the share offering, they added. A Japan Display representative declined to comment. The company, formed in April of last year from display units of Sony Corp, Hitachi Ltd and Toshiba Corp , is 70 percent owned by the Innovation Network Corp of Japan, a mostly government-funded body to support "next-generation" businesses. Japan Display has committed $2 billion to investment in the Mobara plant, which it bought from Panasonic Corp and began operating in June of this year. The funds raised from the IPO would be used for additional expansion projects. Japanese companies typically proceed with a share offering about three months after submitting an application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Although the company does not name its customers, industry sources widely confirm that it supplies screens for both Google Inc's Nexus7 tablet and Amazon.com Inc's Kindle Fire HDX, as well as Apple Inc's iPhone. Japan Display chalked up sales of 450 billion yen in the latest year to March and an operating profit of several billion yen. At the start of the current financial year in April, Japan Display President Shuichi Otsuka said it was targeting sales of 700 billion to 800 billion yen and an operating profit margin around 5 percent. Japan Display has tapped Goldman Sachs, Nomura Securities and Morgan Stanley as global coordinators for the IPO, sources with direct knowledge of the matter have told Reuters. - Reuters |
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