Isnin, 17 September 2012

NST Online Business Times : latest

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NST Online Business Times : latest

Posted: 17 Sep 2012 07:39 PM PDT

KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened higher in early trading Tuesday despite the mixed sentiment on regional stock markets, dealers said.

At 10.19am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 7.2 points better at 1,650.15 after opening 3.94 points higher at 1,646.89.

HwangDBS Vickers Research said the sentiment in regional markets were also mixed while the Malaysian stock exchange was closed for a public holiday.

"Over on Wall Street, key US equity indices slipped between 0.2 per cent and 0.3 per cent at the closing bell," it said in a research note today.

The research firm said trading would be range-bound today.

"The benchmark FBM KLCI, after a rebound of 18.4 points or 1.1 per cent last week, will likely move sideways for the time being with the immediate resistance threshold seen at 1,655," it added.

The Finance Index rose 56.86 points to 14,820.06, the Plantation Index lost 41.89 points to 8,425.25 and the Industrial Index advanced 19.63 points to 2,820.63.

The FBM Emas Index gained 48.17 points to 11,223.78, the FBM Mid 70 Indexincreased 52.3 points to 12,168.67 and the FBM ACE Index added 13.7 points to 4,367.52.

Gainers led losers 258 to 163 while 220 counters were unchanged, 980 untraded and 15 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 213.64 million shares worth RM408.83 million.

Among actives, Asia Resources and Scomi earned half-a-sen each to
one sen and 33.5 sen, respectively, while AirAsia eased five sen to RM3.05 and 1 Utopia slipped half-a-sen to eight sen.

Heavyweights, Maybank added eight sen to RM9.48, CIMB was four sen higher at RM7.73, Petronas Chemicals increased seven sen to RM6.60 while Sime Darby lost one sen to RM9.79.-- BERNAMA

US stocks take a breather

Posted: 17 Sep 2012 04:58 PM PDT

NEW YORK: US stocks closed lower Monday in the aftermath of the Federal Reserve's new QE3 stimulus rally amid concerns about weakness in US manufacturing and anti-American unrest in the Middle East.

The Federal Reserve's Empire State manufacturing index for the New York region fell for a second straight month in September.

"An unexpected deterioration in New York Manufacturing activity to the lowest level since April 2009 is offering no relief for sentiment," said Charles Schwab & Co. analysts.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished off 40.27 points (0.30 per cent) at 13,553.10.

The S&P 500 slid 4.58 (0.31 per cent) to 1,461.19, while the tech-rich Nasdaq shed 5.28 (0.17 per cent) at 3,178.67.

"We have concerns regarding the impact of QE3 on oil and gasoline prices and the growing anti-American unrest in the Middle East," said Fred Dickson, chief investment strategist at DA Davidson & Co.

Apple again grabbed the stocks spotlight after announcing its new iPhone 5 set a new pre-release order record, at more than two million orders in the first 24 hours, leaving the gadget maker short of supply of the hotly anticipated smartphone.

Apple closed within a hair of US$700 a share, up 1.2 per cent at a record US$699.78, giving the world's most valuable firm a market worth of nearly US$656 billion.

Ford Motor Co fell 1.3 per cent. After the market close, the Canadian Auto Workers union announced a tentative agreement on a four-year contract with Ford Canada, averting a strike scheduled to start at midnight. Ford was up 0.2 per cent in after-hours trade.

In merger and acquisition news, home-improvement retailer Lowe's Companies slipped 0.6 per cent after withdrawing its acquisition bid for Canada's RONA Inc.

Rival retailer Home Depot fell 0.9 per cent.

Financials were under pressure after scoring strong gains last week on the back of the Fed's new open-ended QE3 bond-buying stimulus. Bank of America led the Dow decliners, shedding 2.6 per cent. Fellow Dow member JPMorgan Chase lost 0.9 per cent. -- AFP

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Protests Over Contentious Film Spread to Afghanistan, Indonesia - New York Times

Posted: 17 Sep 2012 07:29 AM PDT

By MATTHEW ROSENBERG and SANGAR RAHIMI

Published: September 17, 2012

KABUL — Hundreds of Afghans burned tires and pelted police officers and buildings with stones along a thoroughfare leading east out of Kabul on Monday, at one point nearing the high walls of a large American military base, in the first significant escalation of violence in Afghanistan over an anti-Islam film that has inflamed mobs in other parts of the Muslim world.

The outburst followed demonstrations and violence in more than 20 countries since last Tuesday, when the American ambassador in Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, was killed in an attack on the United States diplomatic mission in Benghazi as protests spread from neighboring Egypt.

In Indonesia, news reports said, police firing tear gas and water cannons on Monday moved against hundreds of demonstrators who gathered outside the American Embassy in Jakarta to express opposition to the film, which many Muslims regard as blasphemous toward the Prophet Muhammad. Some protesters set fire to an American flag, while others hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails and burned tires.

The police in Karachi, Pakistan, were pelted by rocks and fired in the air to turn back a convoy of protesters in cars and on motorcycles from the American Consulate, according to Reuters. Near the American Consulate in Lahore, protesters threw rocks and burned an American flag, the news agency said, and in Islamabad, the American Embassy said it had halted public services.

In southern Beirut, Lebanon, thousands answered a call by Hezbollah to protest peacefully. They chanted "Death to America, death to Israel" and "America, hear us — don't insult our Prophet," Reuters said.

In Afghanistan on Monday, as in other parts of the world, most of the protesters were young men, who chanted for the death of America, Israel, Britain and President Hamid Karzai's government.

The police here responded in force to quell the rioting. Scores of regular officers and riot police officers wearing helmets and protected by shields battled groups of young men throughout the morning, trying to keep the demonstrators from moving toward the center of Kabul.

There had been some protests in eastern Afghanistan on Friday over the video, with demonstrators burning an effigy of President Obama. But the protests on Monday were far more violent.

Mr. Karzai's government had gone to some lengths to keep a lid on anger over the American-made movie as news of the protests spread around the world. Afghan officials across the country gathered elders and religious leaders and told them that it was fine to speak out against the movie, but that they should urge people to stay calm and avoid violence.

The government also asked Internet providers to block sites hosting video, shutting down access to Google, YouTube and Gmail in the process. Access to all the sites appeared to have been restored on Monday afternoon, hours after the protests on Jalalabad Road had subsided.

The NATO-led coalition said the base that lies along Jalalabad Road, Camp Phoenix, had not been targeted by the protesters and was unaffected by the violence.

But outside its well-fortified walls, the charred remains of shipping containers could be seen, though it was impossible to tell from the blackened steel shells whether they had been carrying supplies for the base or were being used by others not connected to the military.

Ayub Salangi, Kabul's police chief, said about 50 police officers had suffered light wounds trying to keep the protesters in check. He, too, was left with some bruises and cuts from stones hurled by protesters at the scene.

At least two police cars were set ablaze, he said. By late morning, other smoldering vehicles could be seen along the road, as well as burning shipping containers and piles of flaming tires. Plumes of black smoke were visible from the center of the city.

For many of the people who live near Jalalabad Road or work at the shops and construction depots that line it, the protest was an unwelcome disruption that accomplished little apart from destroying property. A man in his mid-30s, who declined to be identified by name, cursed the protesters for burning tires and shouted at them, "Will your dad pay for the road's damages?" None of the protesters seemed to hear him.

"They can express their pure Islamic emotions, but this is not the way to do it," he said. "The government built this road with money we beg from foreigners, and now they are destroying it."

The protests abated by noon, and by midafternoon the road was clogged with its usual workday traffic.

Most officials offered only vague estimates of the crowd's size. Mr. Salangi said hundreds of people participated in the protest, an estimate in line with what other officials offered. But one senior police officer, Gen. Ahmad Fahim Qayam, who commands the quick reaction unit of the Kabul police, put the size of the protest at between 3,000 and 4,000 people.

Mr. Salangi described the protesters as "emotional" young men who had tried to press toward downtown Kabul in four or five separate groups.

The Afghan government has appeared eager to avoid a repeat of the violent and deadly protests that swept the country earlier this year over the inadvertent burning of Korans by American soldiers at a base north of Kabul.

Alan Cowell contributed reporting from London.

White House Files Trade Complaints Against China - Wall Street Journal

Posted: 17 Sep 2012 08:45 AM PDT

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Isnin, 17 September 2012