MARKET ROUNDUP (Source Bloomberg)

U.S. Stocks Fall on Europe Woes After Last Week's Rally; as European finance chiefs deadlocked at debt-crisis talks and New York-area manufacturing slumped. The S&P 500 slid 0.3 percent to 1,461.19 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 40.27 points, or 0.3 percent, to 13,553.1.
About 5.7 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges today, 5.4 percent below the three-month average.

European Stocks Slip From 15-Month High; as concern of a deepening economic slowdown in China overshadowed optimism resulting from the Federal Reserve's third round of quantitative easing. Germany's DAX slipped 0.1 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 (UKX) declined 0.4 percent, while France's CAC 40 dropped 0.8 percent.

Oil Trades Near One-Week Low on Forecast Crude Supplies Gained; before a government report that may show stockpiles climbed for a second week in the U.S., the world's biggest crude consumer. Oil for October delivery was at $96.87
a barrel, up 25 cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 9:29 a.m. Sydney time. The contract slid $2.38 yesterday to $96.62, the lowest close since Sept. 10. Prices are 2 percent lower this year.


CORPORATE NEWS

Ekuinas invests RM78m more in Rancak Selera: Rancak Selera currently owns and operates 32 Burger King outlets in Malaysia. Ekuinas F&B Group, comprising Burger King Malaysia and Singa-pore, Revenue Valley Group, which owns and
operates Manhattan Fish Market, Tony Roma's and Popeyes in Malaysia and Singapore, and San Francisco Coffee, currently already have more than 140 outlets operating in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand with a combined revenue of more than RM350 million.

Singapore recession risks rise as exports fall: The tradedependent Southeast Asian city-state said yesterday non-oil domestic exports (NODX) fell 10.6 per cent from a year earlier, hurt by a 10.4 per cent drop in electronics and a 28.7 per cent plummet in shipments to the EU, its largest market. On a
seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, NODX shrank 9.1 per cent after contracting 3.6 per cent in July.

Btimes

Slowdown in car sales: Consumers are postponing car purchases because of several factors including expectations of goodies in the upcoming budget for the auto sector.

Electronics, chip sectors to slow: The semiconductor and electronics industries in the country are expected to register a single-digit drop in sales in the second half of the year compared with the first half, according to the Malaysian American Electronics Industry (MAEI).


StarbIz


Source:Jupiter Securities Research 18 September 2012