Published: Friday August 16, 2013 MYT 12:00:00 AM Updated: Friday August 16, 2013 MYT 7:18:54 AM Astral unit signs JV agreement
PETALING JAYA: Astral Supreme Bhd, via unit Astral Supreme Construction Sdn Bhd, has signed a joint-venture agreement with Zenith PMC Sdn Bhd to manage, perform and carry out feasibility studies and detailed designs for certain roadworks and the undersea tunnel between Penang island and Seberang Prai.
Zenith PMC is a unit of Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd, one of the major shareholders of Consortium Zenith BUCG Sdn Bhd. Consortium Zenith BUCG was awarded the project by the Penang government. (The Star)
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian share markets came under renewed pressure on Wednesday as investors worried that minutes of the Federal Reserve's July policy meeting would only add to suspicions it will start scaling back stimulus from September.
Reports that Japan's government would raise the severity of the latest leak at Fukushima to a level 3 event, or a serious radiation incident, sent shivers through stocks and knocked the Nikkei (NIK:^9452) down 0.8 percent.
The news drowned out strong words from Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda that he would not hesitate to expand the bank's already massive asset buying campaign if the economic outlook darkened.
The selling rippled across the region, nudging MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> down 0.5 percent to a five-week trough. Korean shares shed 1 percent (.KS11) while the Shanghai market lost 0.4 percent (.SSEC).
Business time on BNM news: Zeti said although the current account surplus has narrowed, Bank Negara is confident that it will remain in surplus for the rest of the year and up to 2015.
"The projection is that we will remain in surplus and measures are being taken preemptively so that we continue to record a surplus going into next year and 2015," she said.
Zeti pointed out that there is less concern over the narrowing of the current account surplus as Malay-sia's high level of reserves reinforces the country in a very positive position.
The central bank's international reserves amounted to RM432.8 billion as at June 28 2013 and RM438.3 billion as at July 31 2013, which is sufficient to finance 9.7 months of retained imports.
She said there is still a high degree of confidence in the country's fundamentals and Malaysia will continue to record steady inflows of foreign direct investments.
"This is a very important part of the balance of payments account, which shows that there is still confidence in the our economy."
She also said if the situation warrants it, Malaysia can opt to scale back and reschedule the implementation of large and high import content projects like in the mid-1990s to improve the current account balance. "We did this then and we were able to reduce our deficit (10 per cent to the GDP) by more than half ... this is one option that we can look at."
On the volatility of the ringgit of late, which has depreciated by about seven per cent this year, she said this is not something new as Malaysia has experienced it before and was able to intermediate the situation during the height of the 2008 and 2009 financial crisis.
"It is within our expectation. Earlier, we saw huge inflows into our financial system amounting to some RM70 billion and the funds are now flowing back to their respective countries, particularly the United States, due to the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing."
Zeti said Malaysia has strong intermediaries, well-developed financial markets, especially its bond market, and a strong presence of institutional investors.
"When there is any selling of Malaysian government securities and where there is significant presence of non-residents in the market, these are absorbed by our own institutional investors," she said.
"We had coped with it in a more destabilising condition and we will be able to cope with it now," she said.
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Tiago Gt
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Posted by Tiago Gt > 2013-08-12 14:43 | Report Abuse
attack wb now....as the monther and wa is getting higher but wb still sleep....let us wake him up!!!