MARKET ROUNDUP (Source Bloomberg)

U.S. Stocks Drop Amid Lower Retail Sales, Europe Concern: The S&P 500 fell 0.7 percent to 1,314.88. It rose 1.2 percent yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 77.42 points, or 0.6 percent, to 12,496.38. Trading volume for exchange-listed stocks in the U.S. was about 6.1 billion shares, 10 percent below the three-month average. Equities fell as retail sales dropped in May for a second month, as limited job and income gains hold back consumers. Euro-area industrial production declined for a second month in April, led by a drop in Germany, adding to signs of a deepening economic slump.

European Stocks Fall As Borrowing Costs Rise At Debt Sale: borrowing costs increased at debt auctions in Germany and Italy and as Sweden's SKF (SKFB) AB reported weakening demand for its products in the second quarter. France's CAC 40 lost 0.6 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 rose 0.2 percent and Germany's DAX fell 0.1 percent.

Oil Drops To Eight-Month Low On U.S. Retail Sales: a report showed that U.S. retail sales weakened and as borrowing costs in Germany and Italy increased. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, July crude fell 70 cents, or 0.84 percent, to $82.62 a barrel, having traded from $82.15 to $84.01.

CORPORATE NEWS


Starhill REIT buys 3 Australian hotels for RM1.32b: is making its foray into the Australian hospitality property market with the acquisition of three Marriott hotels in three cities for a total of A$415 million (RM1.32 billion). This will be the second country that Starhill REIT has ventured into after Japan, with the overseas hotel assets accounting for some RM1.5 billion. In Japan, the trust owns Hilton Niseko.

MSM plans to move upstream in region: The move upstream will allow MSM to have better control of feedstock costs in the event of unforeseen circumstances such as erratic and extreme weather conditions that cause commodity prices to skyrocket.

-SunBiz

Seaport Terminal wins bid: has emerged as the winning bidder for the proposed privatisation of Penang Port Sdn Bhd. Among the terms of the agreement was for the company to bear the cost of dredging works to deepen the Penang Port channel. Fajarbaru eyes MRT deals: is understood to have submitted bids to build stations for the RM40 billion MyRapid Transit (MRT) project. that Fajarbaru is eyeing contracts to build MRT stations under packages S4 and S5, which closed on May 28 and June 11, respectively. The combined value of the two packages to build the seven stations is about RM650 million.

Btimes

Dutch Lady on track to achieve RM1bil sales: on track to achieve its RM1bil sales target for 2013 despite the slowdown in the local dairy industry, said managing director Rahul Colaco. He said the growth of the local dairy industry was expected to be between 6% and 7% this year, compared with 8% to 9% last
year.

Packet One Networks may see injection of between RM160mil-RM255mil: In the past, P1, which is a subsidiary of technology firm Green Packet Bhd, has seen investors including South Korean partner, SK Telekoms Co Ltd take up stakes in the company, providing it with capital to grow its business.

RM7bil project in Kertih: Terengganu is set to house Asia's largest bio-refinery complex at the Kertih Biopolymer Park. The complex is slated to be fully operational by 2014. It will utilise renewable energy from biomass as opposed to natural gas.

-StarBiz


Source:Jupiter Securities Research 14 June 2012