The Star Online: Business
The Star Online: Business |
- Ringgit likely to trade lower next week
- FBM KLCI to trend towards 1,900 points next week
- Sabah SMEs have grownpast five years
| Ringgit likely to trade lower next week Posted: 02 May 2014 08:48 PM PDT KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit is likely to trade lower against the US dollar next week due to lack of commercial demand, said a dealer. The latest outcome of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting indicated that growth in economic activity had picked up recently hence the support for the greenback.For this holiday-shortened week, the ringgit ended higher at 3.2650/2670 against the greenback from 3.2690/2710 last Friday. Against other major currencies, the ringgit depreciated against the Singapore dollar to 2.6062/5082 from 2.5994/5018 last Friday and rose against the yen to 3.1857/1892 from 3.1974/1009 previously. It eased against the British pound to 5.5136/5173 from 5.4949/4989 and fell against the euro to 4.5259/5290 from 4.5223/4258 last Friday. - BERNAMA |
| FBM KLCI to trend towards 1,900 points next week Posted: 02 May 2014 08:43 PM PDT KUALA LUMPUR: The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) is expected to trend higher towards the psychology level of 1,900 points next week. Affin Investment Bank Vice-President/Head of Retail Research Dr Nazri Khan said local optimism will be driven by European Central Bank and Bank Of Japan's aggressive fiscal stimulus as well as encouraging US economic data. "Global stocks are steady after the Federal Reserve continued to reduce its monthly bond buying by a mild amount and this indicated the economy was improving at a modest pace," he told Bernama. Turning to the local market, he said the fact that the benchmark index has broken from the narrow 1,850-1,870 range indicated stronger bulls ahead. "We expect domestic buying momentum to increase riding on Bursa Malaysia's resilient and defensive appeal, more rotation play towards large capital stocks and more external funds inflow following the extra liquidity from Japan and Europe," he said. Nazri noted the strong leadership by economically-sensitive counters, such as finance, plantation and services, as well as, gains from larger capital stocks indicated new inflow of funds and healthy momentum in the near-term. He added that the long- and medium-term trend for the index remained firmly up as long as it stayed above the 1,800 points level. On a week-to-week basis, the FBM KLCI ended 8.1 points better on Friday at 1,869.08 against 1,860.98 recorded the previous Friday. The Finance Index fell 1.36 points to 17,072.22 points but the Plantation Index soared 66.92 points to 9,062.65 points and the Industrial Index surged 43.88 points to 3,190.86 points. The FBM Emas Index improved 14.75 points to 12,933.1 points, the FBMT100 Index climbed 33.15 points to 12,583.13 points but the FBM 70 declined 46.25 points to 14,097.46 points and the FBM Ace lost 351.31 points to 6,558.58 points. The local market was closed on Thursday for the Labour Day holiday. The holiday-shortened week saw weekly turnover drop to 7.32 billion shares, worth RM6.96 billion, from last week's 11.4 billion shares worth RM10.78 billion. Main market volume decreased to 5.22 billion shares, valued at RM7.55 billion, from 8.66 billion shares, valued at RM10.17 billion, recorded last Friday. The ACE market volume narrowed to 1.92 billion shares, valued at RM378.62 million, from 2.42 billion shares, valued at RM574.6 million, registered last week. - BERNAMA |
| Sabah SMEs have grownpast five years Posted: 02 May 2014 08:39 PM PDT KOTA KINABALU: The small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sector in Sabah has grown by 65 per cent in the past five years with 40,884 such establishments currently operating in the state. Minister of Special Tasks in the Chief Minister's Department Datuk Teo Chee Kang said in terms of numbers, Sabah ranked sixth among all the 13 states in the country. "The SMEs in the state are also more diversified covering many sectors including the manufacturing, agriculture, services, mining and quarrying and, construction sectors," he said at SME 100 Awards 2014 presentation last night. In helping the SMEs, he said the government would continue to focus on capacity building, financial assistance, market development, facilitation of export and brand development, skill and entrepreneurial training, as well as, provide necessary infrastructure, institutional and regulatory support for business to flourish. "At the same time, the government is also determined to ensure that our SMEs remain competitive globally and resilient to external shocks and uncertainties," he added. Teo said the Malaysia Global Innovation and Creative Centre (MaGIC) launched in Cyberjaya jointly by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and United State President Barack Obama last week, was a one stop centre to empower entrepreneurs. The state government would continue to work closely with the Federal government and its agencies to enable SMEs to take advantage of all the numerous assistance and incentives extended by the government. "At the same time, I strongly urge our SMEs to be proactive and more aggressive in developing and expanding their business domestically and internationally. "As all of you are well aware, most of the successful multinational companies today started off as SMEs," he said. He also advised SMEs to prepare for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which be implemented on April 1, 2015. Teo added that the introduction of the GST was important to have a clear understanding of the general mechanism of the new system so that necessary adjustments can made. At the event, 31 SMEs from Sabah and Sarawak were announced winners of the annual award, organised by SME Magazine, Among the award recipients were Airworld Travel and Tours Sdn Bhd, Mega United Resources Sdn Bhd, Pembinaan D.G.E Sdn Bhd, SM Health Care Sdn Bhd, Timplas Industries (M) Sdn Bhd and Ulink Ascot Sdn Bhd. - BERNAMA |
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