16 theSun | FRIDAY JUNE 19 2009

business KLCI
STI
1,054.41
2,237.20
16.49
34.25
Nikkei
TSEC
9,703.72
6,144.53
137.13
51.38
Hang Seng 17,776.66 307.94 KOSPI 1,375.76 15.41
SCI 2,853.90 43.78 S&P/ASX200 3,892.1 12.0

KL market summary

JUNE 18, 2009

INDICES
FBMEMAS
CHANGE
7,062.16 -138.15
CI sheds 16 points on profit taking
COMPOSITE 1,054.41 -16.49
INDUSTRIAL 2,328.23 -10.88 SHARE prices on Bursa Malaysia closed level will be at 1,030,” Phua said.
CONSUMER PROD 318.68 -2.62 lower yesterday as profit-taking contin- “As long as it maintains above the
INDUSTRIAL PROD 83.98 -2.36 ued with the selling of key heavyweights, 1,050 level, there is a good chance it will
CONSTRUCTION 201.14 -6.31
especially those in the banking sector, turn around,” he said.
TRADING SERVICES 139.36 - 2.32
FINANCE 8,411.45 -176.63 dealers said. Losers led gainers by 723 to 90 while
PROPERTIES 724.60 -36.21 The KLCI declined 16.49 points to 138 counters were unchanged, 304 un- EXCHANGE RATES June 18, 2009
PLANTATION 5,324.23 -66.31 1,054.41 after opening 0.01 of a point traded and 66 others suspended. Leading
MINING 275.60 -2.02 lower at 1,069.99 in the morning. the active counters were UEM Land which Foreign currency Bank sell Bank buy Bank buy
FBMSHA 7,301.55 -123.35 SJ Securities’ head of research Phua fell 24 sen to RM1.59 and KNM which
FBM2BRD 4,807.16 -206.62 TT/OD TT OD
Kwee Hock said the downtrend in the dropped 6.5 sen to 88.5 sen.
TECHNOLOGY 14.45 -0.42
market was expected but it was difficult Other active counters included Compu- 1 US DOLLAR 3.5590 3.4940 3.4840
to gauge the duration of the slide. gates which closed at seven sen, Iris which 1 AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR 2.8700 2.7440 2.7280
TURNOVER VALUE
1.919bil RM1.879bil “The market has hit the support level. If eased to 19 sen and Tebrau Teguh which 1 BRUNEI DOLLAR 2.4570 2.3970 2.3890
it goes down some more, the next support lost 12.5 sen to 81.5 sen. – Bernama 1 CANADIAN DOLLAR 3.1570 3.0790 3.0670
1 EURO 4.9840 4.8620 4.8420
1 NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR 2.2840 2.1850 2.1690
1 PAPUA N GUINEA KINA 1.4470 1.2070 1.1910
1 SINGAPORE DOLLAR 2.4565 2.3970 2.3890

TM expects 15% revenue 1 STERLING POUND

1 SWISS FRANC
100 ARAB EMIRATES DIRHAM
100 BANGLADESH TAKA
100 CHINESE RENMINBI
5.8570
3.3070
98.7000
5.5200
N/A
5.7150
3.2270
93.3900
5.2000
N/A
5.6950
3.2120
93.1900
5.0000
N/A

from wholesale business

100 DANISH KRONE 68.9300 63.3400 63.1400
100 HONGKONG DOLLAR 46.7400 44.2700 44.0700
Lefty wins 100 INDIAN RUPEE 7.6900 7.0700 6.8700
hearts but 100 INDONESIAN RUPIAH 0.0364 0.0310 0.0260
heads go 100 JAPANESE YEN 3.7270 3.6370 3.6270
100 NEW TAIWAN DOLLAR N/A N/A N/A
for Woods
SINGAPORE: Telekom Malaysia Iskandar Malaysia and key industrial Asian countries among the growth 100 NORWEGIAN KRONE 57.8000 53.1100 52.9100
Bhd (TM) expects revenue from the zones nationwide. leaders,” he said. pg 29 100 PAKISTAN RUPEE 4.5100 4.2000 4.0000
wholesale business to grow to 15% in TM’s wholesale offerings comprise A report released at Communi- 100 PHILIPPINE PESO 7.5400 7.0800 6.8800
the next two to three years from 10%. three HSBB services — transmission, cAsia 2009 said that broadband lines 100 QATAR RIYAL 99.2900 94.4500 94.2500
Its group chief executive officer access and connection. grew 16.6 million globally in the first
Datuk Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa said The HSBB project will cost RM11.3 quarter of 2009 alone, with over 429 100 SAUDI RIYAL 96.3900 91.6800 91.4800
the target would be driven by the billion. TM will invest RM8.9 billion million people worldwide now. 100 SOUTH AFRICAN RAND 45.7000 42.0400 41.8400
increase in demand for broadband, over a 10-year period, while the gov- Zamzamzairani said Malaysia 100 SRI LANKA RUPEE 3.2000 2.9400 2.7400
as and when TM rolled out its High- ernment will chip in RM2.4 billion. would become an attractive hub 100 SWEDISH KRONA 47.1500 42.8800 42.6800
Speed Broadband (HSBB) network. The project will offer speed of for content providers once the Asia 100 THAI BAHT 11.1800 9.4800 9.0800
“By year-end, 80-90% of the HSBB between 10 megabits per second America Gateway (AAG) cable was
Source: Malayan Banking Berhad/Bernama
will be ready and there will be a user (Mbps) and 1Gbps (billions of bits ready in August.
test. In the first quarter of next year, per second) to Internet users in the “This will make Malaysia attrac-
we would be able to commercialise Klang Valley and Iskandar Malaysia tive for content providers to host World Bank ups China 2009
the services,” he told Malaysian in Johor state, while up to 4Mbps will here to provide the services for their
reporters at the Singapore’s Com- be offered nationwide. customers in the region,” he said. growth forecast
municAsia 2009. For the HSBB retail service, it is AAG is a high-bandwidth optical BEIJING: The World Bank yesterday raised its forecast
CommunicAsia is a regional slated for launch in the fourth quarter fibre submarine cable system linking for economic growth in China this year to 7.2% from
information and communications this year. South-East Asia to the US. 6.5%, citing massive government spending as the main
technology (ICT) exhibition and a Zamzamzairani said mobile Among the operators in the AAG reason for the revised figure.
global platform to address current broadband users were increasing consortium are AT&T in the US, “Developments in the real economy have been
and emerging issues in the ICT and quickly both locally and aboard, Bharti in India, CAT Telekom in somewhat better than expected three months ago.
digital convergence landscape. hence there was a need to provide Thailand, Eastern Telecommunica- More importantly, bank lending in the first part of 2009
The HSBB project involves con- services to support the demand. tions in the Philippines, PT Indosat in has been much larger than expected,” the World Bank
necting 1.3 million premises within “More people worldwide are Indonesia, PCP in Cambodia, Saigon said.
the next two to three years. subscribing to high-speed Internet Postel Corporation in Vietnam, Telstra China, the world’s third-largest economy, started to
The areas that will be served by connections despite the economic in Australia and Telkom Indonesia. be heavily impacted by the global financial crisis in the
HSBB include the inner Klang Valley, downturn, with China and other – Bernama second half of last year, and unveiled an unprecedented
US$580billion package as an antidote. — AFP

Obama regulatory plan is

ambitious gambit
WASHINGTON: The fi-
nancial regulation overhaul
proposed by President Barack
Obama offers much-needed
reforms to troubled markets
but could prove difficult to
enact because it is so ambi-
tious, analysts say.
Even staunch free-market
advocates agree on the need
for streamlining the patch-
work US regulatory system
for financial institutions, but
views on other aspects of the
plan are more divergent.
In unveiling the wide-
ranging plan on Wednesday,
Obama called it the most
sweeping overhaul since the
1930s, vowing to stop future
meltdowns in a financial
system humbled by lax over-
sight, greed and huge debts.
But because the plan
contains so many elements, it
sparked criticism from a va-
riety of quarters. Some said it
did not go far enough, while
others argued it will give the
government too much power
in the private sector.
Especially contentious is
a measure that would allow
the Federal Reserve to inter-
vene in firms that could pose
a threat to financial stability,
even those that don’t own
banks.
Douglas Elliott, an
economist at the Brookings
Institution, said the measures
are “all sensible, necessary
reforms” but fall short of the
major overhaul that could
have been accomplished.
“On the whole, it follows
the broad principles of what
most of us would like to see,
but there were some aspects
that were missed opportuni-
ties,” Elliot said.
Elliott said the notion of a
single financial market regu-
lator was scrapped, leaving
the system with five instead
of six agencies.
“Having this many regula-
tors opens up the system to
financial arbitrage” or “mak-
ing it easier to allow firms to
find the weakest link.”
But he said the most sig-
nificant elements are tougher
regulation of companies that
could cause a systemic shock
and stronger consumer
protection from dangerous
financial products.
Others attacked the pro-
posal as being too aggressive,
saying it could send a chill
through the financial system
and discourage investment
and innovation.
Diana Furchtgott-Roth,
a senior fellow at the con-
servative Hudson Institute,
said consolidating regulators
“definitely does make sense”
but that putting the govern-
ment in change of monitor-
ing companies for systemic
risk “is very dangerous.”
“The idea of the govern-
ment taking over companies
that have problems because
it decides they are too big to
fail invites political cronyism
as we saw with Chrysler and
General Motors,” she said.
“If this happened in Ven-
ezuela or Russia we would
be decrying this. If these
proposals are passed it would
discourage investment in
these large firms.” — AFP