Economy

US: Job openings rose to a record 10.9m in July . US job openings rose to a fresh record high in July, illustrating the lingering staffing shortages that are making it challenging for businesses to meet demand. The number of available positions rose to 10.9m during the month from an upwardly revised 10.2m in June, the Labor Department's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, showed. Economists in a Bloomberg survey had called for openings  to remain little changed at 10m. After shedding millions of workers from payrolls last year, the rapid snapback in economic activity has left many businesses severely short-staffed. (Bloomberg)

US: Yellen sees US debt-limit measures exhausted in October. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the department will probably exhaust its ability to avoid breaching the federal debt limit sometime in Oct, and renewed her call on Congress to boost or suspend the ceiling. “Based on our best and most recent information, the most likely outcome is that cash and extraordinary measures will be exhausted during the month of Oct,” Yellen said in a letter to Congress. (Bloomberg)

EU: Italy retail sales fall in July . Italy's retail sales declined in July after rising in the previous month, data from the statistical office Istat showed. The retail sales value decreased 0.4% MoM in July, after a 0.7% rise in June. In May, sales fell 0.1%. On a yearly basis, retail sales value rose a 6.7% in July, after a 7.9% growth in the previous month. Food sales gained 4.4% monthly in July and non-food product sales grew 8.5%. In volume terms, retail sales fell 0.7% on month in July, after a 0.6% grew in June. The annual growth rose to 8.8% from 8.3% a month ago. (RTT)

EU: France current account deficit increases in July. France's current account deficit widened in July driven by a sharp rise in the visible trade gap, the Bank of France said. The current account deficit increased to EUR3.5bn from EUR0.9bn in June. The deterioration was mainly due to the degradation of the deficit of goods excluding energy by EUR2.9bn, while the deficit in energy goods remained stable at EUR2.9bn. The surplus on services fell slightly to EUR 2.8bn, mainly due to the deterioration in consulting services, despite the improvement in the travel surplus by EUR 0.4bn. (RTT)

China: Sales of property and cars slowed in China with August lockdowns . Chinese consumers cut back on buying cars and apartments in Aug as stronger regulation of the property market and a broad Covid outbreak in the country further undercut the economy’s already slowing recovery. Property sales in the four first-tier cities declined 16% in Aug from a year ago, according to Bloomberg calculations based on weekly data. Total automobile sales including to companies likely dropped about 22% over the same period, the biggest decline since last March when the nation was still in lockdown to control the initial Covid cases. (Bloomberg)

Japan: Upgrades 2Q GDP on stronger business spending . Japan’s economy grew faster than the initially estimated in the April June quarter, helped by solid capital expenditure, although a resurgence in COVID-19 is undermining service-sector consumption and clouding the outlook. Revised GDP data by the Cabinet Office released showed the economy grew an annualised 1.9% in April June, beating economists’ median forecast for a 1.6% gain and the initial estimate of a 1.3% expansion.. (Reuters)

Indonesia: Consumers are most pessimistic in 16 years on outbreak . Indonesian consumers were the most pessimistic in 16 years as the government imposed prolonged lockdown measures to curb the virus outbreak that crippled hospitals and led to thousands of deaths. The consumer confidence index fell to 77.3 in Aug, down from 80.2 in July and well into the below-100 territory that signals pessimism for the future economic situation, Bank Indonesia said in a survey. (Bloomberg)

Markets

Green Packet: To run prototype tolling system on Malaysian highways with FETCi. Green Packet, in collaboration with FETC International Co (FETCi), will run a multi-lane free flow (MLFF) tolling system proof of concept (POC) on Malaysian highways. FETCi is a radio frequency identification (RFID) and free-flow tolling expert having implemented several MLFF systems in Asian countries. The MLFF POC is a critical process to achieve a congestion-free highway state through better traffic infrastructure, as stipulated in the Ministry of Works' Malaysian Intelligent Transport System (ITS) blueprint. (BTimes)

Unisem: Shuts Ipoh plants for seven days on MoH orders. Unisem (M) said its plants in Ipoh have been ordered to shut down for seven days from Sept 8 to 15 by the Ministry of Health. It did not mention the reason for the temporary stoppage of its Ipoh plants. The loss in production arising from the closure is estimated to be approximately 2% of total annual production. The sales and production at Ipoh plants will continue to be adversely impacted in the coming months due to headcount limitation until such time the pandemic subsides significantly. (The Edge)

Duopharma, Bintai: Duopharma denies appointing Bintai, other parties as distributor of Sinopharm's Covid-19 vaccine. Duopharma Biotech has denied appointing any party including Bintai Kinden Corp as a distributor of the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine in Malaysia. It was referring to a report concerning Bintai partnering with the company to distribute the vaccine in the country. It added that applications for registration of pharmaceutical products with the Drug Control Authority as well as sales and distribution of pharmaceutical products are in the ordinary course of the group's business. (The Edge)

Pertama Digital: Enlarges stake in Dapat Vista. Pertama Digital has completed the acquisition of a further 24% of the total ordinary shares in govtech software company Dapat Vista (M) SB from HeiTech Padu. This followed an announcement in July that it had exercised its contractual option to acquire the additional stake on top of the 56% it had already held in Dapat. Pertama Digital’s increased majority stake in Dapat enables a consolidation of larger contributions to the bottomline of Pertama Digital. (The Edge)

K-One Technology: To develop, manufacture NASA-approved ventilators. K-One Technology will develop and manufacture ventilators in Malaysia to meet increasing demands and the changing global landscape of the medical devices industry. The ventilators are licensed by the US-based National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA-JPL). It has also been awarded a matching grant by the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA). (BTimes)

YTL Corp: FY21 profit surges 52% to RM638.5m. YTL Corp's pretax profit soared by 52.3% to RM638.5m for the 12 months ended June 30, 2021, on revenue of RM17.36bn, underpinned by its booming utilities and cement businesses. The group continued to achieve solid performance, with the utilities division benefiting from the ongoing recovery of the merchant multi-utilities business in Singapore. Its cement division also turned in a strong performance. (BTimes)

Market Update

The FBM KLCI might end the week with a negative note after global stocks fell on Wednesday as investors anticipated the unwinding of central bank stimulus measures that have helped prop up markets throughout the coronavirus pandemic. Wall Street’s blue-chip S&P 500 index closed down 0.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 0.6%. Declines were broad-based, with cyclical sectors such as financials and energy falling alongside technology stocks, the latter having recently been a hide-out for investors doubtful of the strength of the economic recovery. The cautious mood in the US followed declines across Europe and most of Asia. The Europe-wide Stoxx 600 index closed down 1.1% for its steepest fall in three weeks, while Germany’s Xetra Dax suffered its worst day since mid-July, dropping 1.5% ahead of Thursday’s European Central Bank meeting. London’s FTSE 100 slid 0.8% and the CAC 40 in Paris ended the session 0.9% weaker.

Back home, the FBM KLCI ended at an intraday high, lifted by last minute buying in selected heavyweight stocks, led by Press Metal Aluminium Holdings Bhd and MISC Bhd, dealers said. At 5pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI rose 14.15 points to end at 1,597.63 from Tuesday’s close of 1,583.48. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index eased 0.12% to 26,320.93, Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 1.27% to 3,069.16 and South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.77% to 3,162.99, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.89% to 30,181.21.

Source: PublicInvest Research - 9 Sept 2021