MARKET ROUNDUP (Source Bloomberg)

Most U.S. Stocks Slip After Two-Day Rally; Corn At Record: while European equities rose for a third day and Spanish bonds rallied on speculation policy makers will take action to ease the region's debt crisis. Corn jumped to a record as an American drought persisted. Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped 0.05 percent to 1,385.3 after jumping 3.6 percent over the previous two sessions. Three stocks retreated for every two that rose on U.S. exchanges. Crop conditions are the poorest since 1988 and parts of the U.S. are suffering from the worst drought since 1956. Corn has soared 61 percent since June 15, signaling higher food prices and boosting costs for producers of meat and ethanol.

European Stocks Rise On Euro Support Pledge: rose to their highest level since April amid optimism the European Central Bank will win support from policy makers for a plan to ease the euro area's debt crisis. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and
France's CAC 40 Index jumped 1.2 percent, while Germany's DAX Index gained 1.3 percent.

Oil Falls First Time In Five Days As Dollar Gains On Euro: as the dollar advanced against the euro and amid concern that central bankers will take insufficient action this week to bolster economic growth. Oil for September delivery fell 0.4 percent to $89.78 a barrel in New York as a stronger dollar weighed on crude.

CORPORATE NEWS

YTL opens resort off Sabah: YTL Hotels has started operating the first of its two planned luxury resorts on islands off Borneo. The diversified group started operating the Gaya Island Resort on July 1, YTL's first luxury property which it also owns in Sabah and Sarawak. The resort is expecting to garner an average room rate of above US$350 (RM1,102) and an average occupancy of over 50 per cent in its first year of operation.

Refiners upset over move to boost tax-free CPO exports: The move was made following a recent Cabinet decision. Downstream players have been hoping for the
government to heed their call to scrap the quota as they said it lowered the industry's competitiveness and reduced national revenue. Last year, he estimated that the government had suffered a loss of RM2.45 billion from the exports of 3.47 million tonnes of duty-free CPO.

Btimes


REDtone back in the black: with a net profit of RM2.15mil for the financial year ended May 31, 2012 (FY12), compared with the RM11.72mil loss in the previous year. The turnaround was attributed to significant growth in the company's data and broadband services.

Surprise fall in Japan factory output: unexpectedly last month, official data showed, stoking concerns that turmoil overseas is damaging a recovery in the world's third largest economy. The June decrease was largely due to falling output from automakers and other transport equipment manufacturers, the electronics industry, and the iron and steel sector.

BizTheStar

Source:Jupiter Securities Research 31 July 2012