MARKET ROUNDUP (Source Bloomberg)

S&P 500 Has First Back-To-Back Weekly Gain Since June: U.S. stocks rose for the week, giving the Standard & Poor's 500 Index its first back-to-back gain since June, as results from International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) to Baker Hughes Inc. beat forecasts and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said he's prepared to add stimulus. The S&P 500 added 0.4 percent to 1,362.66 during the week, extending its gain for the year to 8.4 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 45.48 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,822.57, the biggest weekly gain since June 29.

European Stocks Rise For Seventh Week On Company Earnings: the longest winning streak in more than six years, as better-than-expected earnings offset concern that the euro area crisis is deepening. Germany's DAX rallied 1.1 percent, France's CAC 40 advanced 0.4 percent and U.K.'s FTSE 100 lost 0.3 percent.

Oil Drops For First Time In Eight Days On European Debt: on concern that European governments aren't doing enough to contain the worsening debt crisis, raising speculation that demand will slip. Prices dropped from a two-month high
as Spain's cost of borrowing rose to a record after euro-area finance ministers gave final approval to a bank bailout for the country. The dollar strengthened to the most in two years against the euro and U.S. equities slid for the first time in four days. Crude for August delivery fell $1.22, or 1.3 percent, to settle at $91.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil closed at the highest level since May 16 yesterday, capping a seven-day gain that's the longest since Feb. 24. Prices are down 7.5 percent this year. They rose 5 percent this week.

CORPORATE NEWS

AFG says no updates in DBS' talks to buy stake: which is being targeted for acquisition by Singapore's DBS Group Holdings Ltd, said there have been no updates to the discussions between DBS and Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings Pte, which holds a 14.2% stake in AFG.

SunBiz

Sime plans Liberian palm oil bulking facilities: Sime Darby Bhd, one of the top three largest plantation companies in the world, plans to build palm oil bulking facilites in Liberia or neighbouring areas in the next one or two years.This will be a preparatory move in storing the edible oil before it is exported to markets such as Africa, Europe and the United States. Bulking facilities consist of tank farms used to store processed palm oil such as palm olein or crude palm oil in a regulated environment before they are pumped into vessels and shipped to their export destinations.

Btimes

DNest Aviation Services to leverage on Sapura's strength: into the aviation engineering school segment by leveraging on the strength of new owners Sapura Resources Bhd (SRB). In July 2011, SRB entered into a sale of business agreement with DNest via its unit, Nova Embun Sdn Bhd, to acquire the business assets of DNest for RM28mil. SRB is primarily involved in technology-based education business and runs the Asia Pacific University College of Technology and Innovation (UCTI) the Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology (APIIT).

DRB-Hicom opens multi-million flagship Lotus store in London: The commitment has come at a high price for DRBHicom, which owns Lotus through Proton Holdings Bhd. Some ''100mil has been pumped in since Jan, and the conglomerate is prepared to put in another ''100mil by 2013. This is apart from the ''270mil syndicated loan taken at the end of 2010, for which Proton has given its corporate guarantee. The previous Lotus top management team, under former chief executive officer Dany Bahar had drawn down some ''207mil. By July last year, the banks froze the remaining loan amount.

BizTheStar

Source:Jupiter Securities Research 23 July 2012