Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by kplu

What is the recent property transacted price?

kplu — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 11:12:06 +0800

Hi All,

Is it possible to share what is the recent transacted property price based on area, taman, perperty type and size of the house?

Hap Seng Consolidated

kplu — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 22:55:43 +0800

Hap Seng has been going up for the past 1 - 2 months. Anybody has any idea what's cooking?

China warns debt woes threaten global recovery

kplu — Mon, 31 May 2010 18:37:11 +0800

China warns debt woes threaten global recovery
Written by Reuters
Monday, 31 May 2010 16:19

TOKYO: China warned on Monday, May 31 that Europe's struggle to contain ballooning debt posed a risk to global economic growth, raising the spectre of a double-dip recession, according to Reuters.

Premier Wen Jiabao, addressing business leaders during an official visit to Japan, issued his warnings a day after France admitted it will struggle to keep its top credit rating and days after a downgrade of Spain's credit status again jolted financial markets.

Referring to the risk of a second dip in global economic growth rates, Wen said: "I believe that we can't say with absolute certainty, so we must undertake close observation and act to prevent it."

"The world economy is stable and beginning to revive, but this revival is slow and there are many uncertainties and destabilising factors," he said, adding it was too early to wind down stimulus deployed during the 2007-2009 financial crisis.

Governments around the world ran up record debts during the $5 trillion effort to pull the economy out of its deepest slump since the Great Depression and now face a tough balancing act: how to reduce debt without choking off growth.

"Some countries have experienced sovereign debt crises, for example Greece. Is this kind of phenomenon over? Now it seems that it's not so simple," Wen said. "The sovereign debt crisis in some European countries may drag down Europe's economic recovery."

ECB Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny summed up the task.

"The big challenge is to prevent a vicious circle in which (a) crisis of the public sector again leads to crisis developments in the financial and real sectors of the economy," he told a conference hosted by Austria's central bank.

Greece stumbled into the global spotlight late last year when it sharply revised its budget deficit figures, provoking a series of credit downgrades and sending its borrowing costs soaring, which in turn fanned fears it may default on its obligations.

While a 110 billion euro rescue package put together by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund helped avert an immediate meltdown, it failed to dispel fears that other highly indebted euro zone members such as Spain, Portugal and Italy may face a similar fate.

POLITICAL BACKLASH

A massive 750 billion euro emergency scheme cobbled together by EU leaders early this month, again with IMF help, aimed to deter with its sheer size possible speculative attacks on the euro zone's weaker members and thus support the euro.

In return for the safety net, Athens, Lisbon, Madrid and Rome signed billions of euros in spending cuts and tax hikes to rein in debt, despite an outcry from trade unions and political backlash.

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn praised Spain's austerity package in a newspaper interview, saying they should help restore confidence.

On Friday, Fitch became the second ratings agency to strip Spain of its top triple-A rating a day after it passed its austerity plan by a single vote.

However, recent opinion polls showing the ruling Socialists trailing badly behind the centre-right opposition cast doubt whether the government will manage to muster enough support in parliament for its budget.

Such concerns, have been plaguing the euro, which is heading for its worst month since January 2009, down more than 7 percent against the dollar since the start of May and heading for the sixth straight monthly fall. It was steady in Asia on Monday.

"It is difficult to see a recovery in market sentiment as there are worries that further bad news about southern European countries may come out," said a currency trader at a Japanese bank.

Investors and policymakers around the world are also increasingly worried that Europe's efforts to cut debt will sap the continent's anaemic growth, denting demand for exports from emerging economies and derailing the global recovery.

The fact that not just the fiscally weakest southern European countries, but also nations at the euro zone's core are under pressure to cut debt and deficits amassed during the financial crisis, is adding to those concerns.

On Sunday, France said keeping its AAA credit rating would be a stretch without some tough action on its deficit, while Germany indicated it might resort to raising taxes to bring its shortfall closer to the EU's limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product.

France, the euro zone's second-largest economy, expects the budget deficit to hit 8 percent of GDP this year, but aims to bring it down to the EU limit by 2013. Germany, Europe's biggest economy, expects its deficit to exceed 5 percent of GDP in 2010. In the future, major improvements are needed in the euro area to prevent bad fiscal behaviour and to enforce effective sanctions in the case of breaches of fiscal rules, the head of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet told the conference in Austria.

Striking a more optimistic note, China's Wen said the world's third-largest economy and its prime growth engine remained on course to meet its growth targets this year, though he added it would require Beijing to "maintain a certain level of intensity in its economic stimulus." - Reuters

IGB

kplu — Wed, 26 May 2010 12:29:39 +0800

What is going on with IGB? Is EPF cashing out?

[addedon]May 26, 2010, 12:40 pm[/addedon]IGB Corp. and KLCC Property Holdings Bhd. slid in Kuala Lumpur trading ahead of their removal from the MSCI Malaysia Index as of the close of today.

Shares of IGB, a property developer, dropped 5.5 per cent to RM1.55 at 10.59 am local time, set for their lowest close since April 15, 2009. KLCC slid 3.9 per cent to RM2.75, headed for its lowest close since December 30, 2008. - Bloomberg

Just because it will be removed from MSCI and the share down 8.54%, does it justify the share price slide?

Gamuda

kplu — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:33:18 +0800

Gamuda has been down 20cents for the past 2 days. Could it be related to the about to announce quaterly results?

ISS & FRB

kplu — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:44:37 +0800

Both of the counters are suspended pending material announcement. How come so coincidence? Are both counters related? Anybody has an idea?

China firm announces first safe H1N1 vaccine

kplu — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:13:06 +0800

BEIJING, Aug 19 — A Chinese pharmaceutical company has become the first in the world to produce a safe and effective vaccine for the H1N1 virus, according to its developer.

Studies showed the inoculation made by Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech met “international criteria for vaccines” and caused no severe adverse reactions in any of the 1,614 volunteers who received it, Sinovac said in an e-mail statement yesterday.

Researchers from China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute for the Control of Pharmaceutical and Biological Products conducted and supervised the test in Beijing.

“Trials show that the first dose of vaccine triggers an immune response in the human body, good enough to protect against the A/H1N1 virus strain,” Sinovac general manager Yin Weidong said.

But Sinovac did not give details about the efficacy of differing doses or vaccination methods used.

The results are the first reported anywhere in the world on a vaccine to fight the new H1N1 strain that has sparked the first influenza pandemic in 41 years, said Sinovac, which was formed in 2001 to make immunisations for hepatitis.

It is compiling data on the flu shot as soon as possible before seeking regulatory approval for it in China.

Sanofi-Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline and other vaccine makers are racing to prepare inoculations against the pandemic virus before the Northern Hemisphere winter.

Ten Chinese pharmaceutical companies have joined the global race to produce an effective vaccine, and more than 13,300 volunteers throughout China — including Health Minister Chen Zhu — are taking part in clinical trials.

“The reported results of the Sinovac trial of H1N1 vaccine hinting at good efficacy after a single inoculation are encouraging,” said Lorena Brown, professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Melbourne.

“These will be of particular interest when the data are analysed in terms of age group, vaccine dose, vaccine form and the requirement for adjuvant, all of which can effect the practicality of vaccine manufacture and use.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said in an Aug 6 statement that data on the effectiveness of the first immunisations against the H1N1 virus will be limited when they are first administered.

Key information about the required composition of vaccines and whether one or two shots are needed probably will not be available until late next month, Marie-Paule Kieny, director of WHO’s initiative for vaccine research, said in a telephone interview from Washington yesterday. That data will help determine how many people could be immunised over the next few months, she said.

In June, Sinovac said that it received an initial order for four million doses from the Chinese government, and expects delivery by the end of next month. It anticipated additional orders in October, taking the total to 10 million doses.

Australia’s CSL, the Southern Hemisphere’s only flu vaccine maker, expects preliminary results on the first dose of its vaccine next week, said Rachel David, a company spokesman.

No severe adverse reactions have been observed so far, and the Melbourne-based company plans to submit the data to the Australian government on Sept 4, she said.

There have been at least 177,457 confirmed cases globally, including 1,462 deaths, according to the WHO’s latest statistics updated on Aug 6. — The Straits Times

Investment for Wealth Creation

kplu — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:18:07 +0800

undefined Dear all the investors, I would like to seek your opinions and experience on the investment for the below. I would appreciate your feedbacks. Thank you.

Which investment give you a better return over 5- 10 years?

1. Stock Market

2. Unit Trust

3. Property

4. Small Business Investment

5. Others ( Please Specify)