18 theSun | FRIDAY JANUARY 23 2009

business

Hang Seng S&P/ASX200 TSEC KLCI STI KOSPI Nikkei

12,657.99 3,486.80 4,247.97 879.02 1,708.77 1,116.23 8,051.74
74.36 44 5.36 5.61 4.25 12.62 150.10

market summary

INDICES
JANUARY 22, 2009

CHANGE
FBMEMAS 5,756.29 +39.95
COMPOSITE 879.02 +5.61
INDUSTRIAL 2,077.05 +8.60
CONSUMER PROD 284.30 +0.29
INDUSTRIAL PROD 66.65 -0.10
CONSTRUCTION 166.42 +3.26
TRADING/SERVICES 116.35 +0.38
FINANCE 6,869.09 +101.04
PROPERTIES 532.88 -0.49
PLANTATIONS 4,302.15 +10.21
MINING 249.25 UNCH
FBMSHA 5,988.84 +26.56
FBM2BRD 3,930.92 -0.94
TECHNOLOGY 12.86 -0.03
TURNOVER VALUE
371.784mil RM460.396mil
KL share prices
end higher
SHARE prices on Bursa Malaysia closed
firmer yesterday backed by a sustained
rally on selected heavyweights, espe-
cially plantation and finance-related
counters, dealers said.
At 5pm, the benchmark KLCI rose
5.61 points or 0.642%t to 879.02.
They said investor sentiment was
positive, driven by the strong rebound
on Wall Street overnight led by gains
in banking stocks, in anticipation of
President Barack Obama’s plan to
rescue banks.
The Dow Jones industrial average
gained 279 points to 8,228 while the
S&P 500 added 35 points to 840 and the
Nasdaq rose 66 points to 1,507. Crude
oil surged US$2.71 to US$43.55.
The good sentiment is expected
to see more positive market-moving
news, said Maybank Investment
Bank Bhd’s head of retail research of
equities market, Lee Cheng Hooi.
“Although the local market has
not been performing well for the past
few days, it still remains attractive
to investors despite the pre-Chinese
New Year position squaring,” Lee said,
adding that the 75 basis points slash
in the overnight policy rate (OPR) also
lifted the KLCI slightly.
Meanwhile, MIMB Investment
Bank said the market is expected to
react well on the second stimulus
economic package to be announced
soon by the government.
Among the actives, KNM was flat at
43 sen, UEM Land shed to three sen to
74.5 sen, Compugates rose half sen to
14.5 sen and Axis increased one sen to
14 sen. As for the heavyweights, Sime
Darby rose 10 sen to RM5.40 and IOI
Corp was flat at RM3.68. – Bernama
S’pore taps reserves for
budget stimulus, cuts tax
SINGAPORE: Singapore will for the first
time tap government reserves to pay for part
of a S$20.5 billion (RM49.2 billion) package to
help companies and save jobs as the country
grapples with its worst-ever recession.
The package, which comes on top of
regular government spending, includes S$5.1
billion for training and other measures to
save jobs and S$5.8 billion to stimulate bank
lending.
The budget also offered a 1 percentage
point corporate tax cut.
“The resilience package will not get us
out of recession,” Finance Minister Tharman
Shanmugaratnam told Parliament yesterday
as he unveiled the 2009/2010 budget.
“But it will help avert an even sharper
downturn, and more lasting damage to the
economy,” he added, warning there was no
guarantee that 2010 will be better than 2009.
Tharman said the deficit for the fiscal
year ending March 2010 will be Singapore’s
largest ever at about 6% of gross domestic
product, though drawing on past reserves
will reduce the gap to about S$8.7 billion
(RM20.88 billion), or 3.5% of GDP.
For 2008/2009, Singapore’s budget deficit
will be about S$2.2 billion (RM5.28 billion)
or 0.8% of GDP.
“I think it’s an effort to go beyond provid-
ing a one-shot boost to the economy with
Firefly upbeat it will stay profitable
PETALING JAYA: Community airline, Firefly, is
confident of remaining profitable this year based
on its 1.4 million passenger target, managing
director Eddy Leong said yesterday.
Last year, the wholly-owned subsidiary of
Malaysia Airlines (MAS) carried about 400,000
passengers.
To further support sales and passenger load,
he said, the airline will take delivery of another
five new ATR 72-500 planes between April and
August and fly 19 new routes this year.
Currently, Firely operates on five ATR 72-500
planes and 17 routes – four domestic and 13
regional, he told reporters after opening of the
Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport ticketing office.
He said Firefly hoped to operate the Subang-
Singapore route this year, subject to approval
from the Transport Ministry. Firefly had applied
for four times daily flight for the route.
the primary focus on the labour market and
thawing bank lending,” said Emmanuel Ng,
currency strategist at Oversea-Chinese Bank-
ing Corp in Singapore.
“The market would have expected no less
and with the corporate tax cut to 17 a pleas-
ant surprise,” he said.
“It’s near-term positive for the Singapore
dollar.”
The Singapore dollar, which the central
bank uses as its main monetary policy tool
by managing it against a secret basket of cur-
rencies, stood at 1.4942 by 0949GMT, versus
1.4945 before the budget speech.
Singapore’s export-dependent economy
shrank an annualised seasonally adjusted
16.9% in the fourth quarter, the worst contrac-
tion on record, and the government believes
gross domestic product could decline by as
much as 5% this year.
The country, the first in Asia to fall into
recession last year, has already announced
plans to bring forward about S$4.7 billion
(RM11.28 billion) worth of construction
projects as well as several initiatives to help
small- and medium-sized companies get
loans.
“It will not produce a fundamental turna-
round for the economy of course but will
help cushion some of the pain,” said Kit Wei
Zheng, economist at Citigroup. – Reuters
“We submitted the application recently and
are awaiting approval. We have high hopes (for Japanese economic gloom
approval) as this is part of the Asean open skies
policy,” he said.
deepens as exports plunge
Leong said the airline had applied for all the TOKYO: Japan faces two years of recession and a return
routes to Singapore, namely Penang-Singapore, to deflation, the central bank said yesterday, as a record
Ipoh-Singapore, Malacca-Singapore, Kuala Ter- 35% plunge in exports deepened the gloom surrounding
Asia’s biggest economy.
engganu-Singapore and Kuantan-Singapore.
Demand for Japanese goods plummeted in Decem-
Other new routes for this year include
ber, raising fears the economy may have contracted
Subang-Phuket, Subang-Krabi, Penang-Huahin
10% on an annualised basis in the fourth quarter of
and Subang-Alor Setar, he said. 2008 – the worst performance in three decades.
Leong said the economic downturn would “Exports tumbled so much that you cannot believe
not have an impact on its expansion plans, with your eyes,” said Naoki Murakami, chief economist at
the airline focusing on community rather than Monex Securities.
leisure routes. “We focus on bringing the com- Analysts said Japan’s economy looked set to log its
munity together. Therefore, we are less exposed worst quarter since 1974 in the wake of the oil crisis.
to the economic downturn. We fly to places that “It’s inevitable that we will see a 10% or steeper
are less competitive and we have not seen any drop,” said Hiroshi Watanabe, an economist at Daiwa
sign of slowing down,” he said.– Bernama Institute of Research. – AFP