GLCs Under Fire? (A Most Important Posting)

Savvy market watchers would have noticed a quite deliberate sell down in GLCs and related counters. Yes, markets are depressed, yes... foreign funds are doing another selling wave. But isn't it a bit out of the ordinary to see GLCs being sold down persistently?





The ones being hammered: Sime Darby (understandably), but others are getting whacked as well, Petronas Chemical, Axiata, MRCB, UEM Land, CIMB, AirAsia (new link up now can be considered as related GLC counter), ... even Kencana, IJM, SP Setia ...


Coffee shop talk would have you believe that it could be an aggregation of various factors:


1) Unpalatable corporate governance issues


2) Cashing up owing to upcoming elections


3) Downgrades in property and oil and gas sectors





Foreign funds vote with their shares. Recent corporate governance issues have been very unpalatable. Some even say that certain parties are trying to push through certain deals prior to the elections, at all costs. Besides the Sime Darby-E&O deal, the AirAsia-MAS deal was a sour note ... not many mainstream media or analysts dared to mention that CIMB was advising both parties??!! What kind of crap is that? Its like a court case where the prosecutor and defending lawyer are from the same firm. Please show me ONE other case in global corporate M&A transactions whereby one investment bank advises both sides.


You'd think there would be more support from local funds, in fact PNB and EPF have been having to up their stakes in indexed stocks over the last 3 years owing to lessening participation of other investing groups (private and foreign investors alike). Take any of the top 20 indexed stocks and mark out how much Khazanah, EPF and PNB collectively hold.


That IS NOT A GOOD THING!!! A vibrant, liquid and transparent exchange is needed for it to fulfil a proper capital markets' objectives. It has now come to a stage whereby local funds control the index ... the flip side is local funds are buying because NOBODY else wants to buy.





Indonesia used to be way behind us in terms of stock market attractiveness, market capitalisation, liquidity, transparency issues .... Now Indonesia has overtaken us on ALL counts, yes, their total market capitalisation is bigger than ours now.


The stranger thing is that the Indonesian market have a very very low participation rate by their local funds. They do not have their PNBs or EPFs ... this is all the more glaring when you line up our markets. 


15 years ago it would have been HK, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka... in that order of attractiveness to investors
5 years ago it would have been HK, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka
Now, its HK, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka ...
I believe 3-5 years from now, if left unchecked ... it would be HK, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Malaysia 


We all know the reasons why, I can highlight all those reasons, even those on both sides of the fence know why .... well... do we know where we are headed if we continue this way? If you do, are you doing anything about it?

Old Movies, Great Songs

Its not often you get great songs written for the movie, and its magical when the two become intertwined. Was browsing through the internet and came across an old movie that brought back such wonderful memories. It used to be that to be able to go on a movie date with the opposite sex is a "major thing". Plus, we have to wait for the right movie some more.


The first one is Ice Castles, ask any auntie over 35, they will remember who Robby Benson is, a bit like Leonardo de Caprio and Justin Timberlake put together.  The final sequence where Lynn Holly Johnson dances to the Love Theme From Ice Castles (she accidentally got blinded prior to her competition).





... and we also had Melissa Manchester singing the theme song beautifully for that movie, composed lovingly by Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager.




The second movie that always stayed with me was The Boy In The Plastic Bubble, starring a very young John Travolta. Based on the true story of Tod Lubich who must stay in a bubble as he has a deficient immune system. Its a wonderful love story of strength, character, determination ... in the end he walked out of the bubble not knowing whether his immune system is sufficient to face the living world, but he chose to live and love rather than be in the bubble. The final scene where he walked out to meet his girl. The song then was sung by Paul Williams in the final sequence ... but John Travolta's version was done at the credits.





The theme song, wonderfully sung by John Travolta, way before SNF and Grease ... What Would They Say, beautifully composed by Paul Williams.



The final one, which is secretly everybody's favourite movie of all time if they really cared to admit it, Somewhere In Time. Way before Back To The Future came on board, we had time travel romance. Jane Seymour, everlasting beauty and Chris Reeve,  what a story, there's a sense of completeness.



The film score was famous because  it ties in brilliantly with the period movie and languid scenery. I don't think lyrics was composed for the theme song at the time of the release of the movie. Naturally you will find a few versions with lyrics to them. Funny.  There was one sung by Nonoy Zuniga, a famous Filipino singer, his version is better than Michael Crawford.

Dilbert@Jakarta ... for company visit

JAKARTA — About 50 women in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, donned miniskirts to protest remarks by the Jakarta city governor who blamed a recent gang rape on the victim's choice of clothing.

Fauzi Bowo called on women Friday not to wear miniskirts when riding on public transport in the capital after a 27-year-old woman was attacked in a public minivan early this month.

Police failed to catch the rapists, but the woman spotted one of the alleged perpetrators two weeks later as he drove the vehicle.

"We are here to express our anger. Instead of giving heavy punishment to the rapists, the governor blamed it on women's dress. This is discrimination," protest coordinator Chika Noya told AFP.

Wearing tank tops and short skirts, the women demonstrated at a main roundabout in the capital, some holding a big banner and posters saying: "Don't tell us how to dress, tell them not to rape" and "My miniskirt is my right."

"Rape is a serious crime against humanity," Noya said, adding that the governor should guarantee women's safety on public transport.

Protester Dhyta Caturani, dressed in a miniskirt and revealing top, said: "The way women dress is not the cause of sexual violence."

Governor Bowo apologised on Saturday for his remarks but that failed to convince demonstrators.

Jakarta police recorded an increase in recorded rape cases with 41 for this year up to September in the city of 12 million, compared to 40 during the whole of 2010.

Caturani said the protest was inspired by the "SlutWalk" phenomenon which began in Toronto in April when hundreds of women and men took to the streets to protest a comment made by a police constable that "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised."

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.


p/s apologies to my Indonesian friends, not meant to make an example from Jakarta ... just to put through my point on this pervasive stupid line of thinking that permeates through some people

Some Traction For The Markets Finally

Two up days, one big down day, then the same charade again. This is the recipe for not doing anything in the markets. However, I finally found something which may actually signal a proper uptrend move over the near term. As investors await the outcome on Thursday of a critical two-day US Federal Reserve meeting expected to deliver fresh initiatives to kick-start the US economy.


In the latest news, the euro zone finance ministers increased the pressure on Greece to get its economy in shape by pushing back from next week to early October an assessment on whether it is meeting its obligations to receive the next tranche of bailout money.

This stunned Greece on Friday night, as it has already stated it will be out of money by mid-October and desperately needs the next €8 billion tranche.

The problem appears to be Finland's desire for collateral from Greece for its participation in the plan - a position other European countries will also want should it be accepted.

This is potentially a major stumbling block for markets because should Greece fail to get the money and soon - and it is also getting harder and harder for Greece to meet its obligations as its economy contracts by 7 per cent - it will go into default on its €330 billion of sovereign debt.

Why I say there is some traction was that the  looming European financial meltdown was partially averted a few days ago after the European Central Bank, the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and the central banks of Switzerland and England agreed to inject serious US-dollar liquidity into the European banking system.


That wasn't the "killer app" but rather the subsequent confirmation that Germany and France continue to officially support Greece's position in the EU helped enormously. Not many have picked up on this but the confirmation basically averted a contagion.


For the past few weeks, shares have been hammered out of oblivion, making valuations for shares quite reasonable, but every time buyers popped in, it will be followed by selling waves a day or two later - that's largely because the Greek issue, if not contained, will quickly morphed as similar mega problems for Spain, Italy, Ireland and Portugal.


The underlying fear was that Greece may be "allowed to default", or be moved out of the Euro currency - both will trigger avalanches of fear for the other problematic Euro countries mentioned. With the confirmation by France and Germany, Greece will stay put and the problems will be solved within EU auspices.

The finance ministers of the 17 countries that comprise the euro zone made their decision on Greece at a meeting on Friday night in Poland, and as an indication of how important matters now are in the region, it was attended for the first time by a member of the US Treasury - Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Yet there was little else resolved. It was agreed to tighten the sanctions on governments that failed to meet their EU debt and deficit limits (something that might have helped if it had been in place over the past decade) but issues such as the US's call for Europe to leverage its bailout fund to increase its size and Finland's request for collateral were left unanswered.


These developments are as positive as one can get given the dire situation. I know that sounds silly but its probably true.

Dilbert@Malaysia

Malaysia Day

Have you registered as a voter? If you have, promise yourself and for your children's sake, to at least convince ONE more person you know to register and vote. Between 2008 and 2009, there were 10 millionregistered voters in the country and another 4.3 million eligible voters who were not registered. This year, the total number of registered voters increased to 12 million and eligible unregistered voters dropped to 3.7 million.
"Blaming the loss of the elections on gerrymandering, fraud, phantom voters, postal votes, and so on, is one issue. No doubt all this exists and Pakatan Rakyat needs to win maybe one million votes just to become par with Barisan Nasional. Therefore, to win by just one vote Pakatan Rakyat needs to garner 1,000,001 votes.

Take note that Pakatan Rakyat needed only 300,000 more votes to form the federal government in the last general election in March 2008. That’s right, only 300,000 more votes, if you total up the votes from the bottom 30 seats that Barisan Nasional won. If Pakayat Rakyat had garnered those extra 300,000 votes it would have won 112 parliament seats versus Barisan Nasional’s 110 instead of only 82 versus Barisan Nasional’s 130, like what happened last year." - Malaysia Today/RPK

Even after you register, make sure you check via their website that you are on the roll, a number of people who have registered found that they were still not on the roll. To check if you are on the roll. Not only that, this is also to certify the correct seat/aduan you are registered under:

http://daftarj.spr.gov.my/NEWDAFTARJ/DaftarjBI.aspx

a) Go to any of the offices below and fill in Form A together with your IC:

PEJABAT PILIHAN RAYA NEGERI KUALA LUMPUR
TINGKAT 3, BANGUNAN YAYASAN SELANGOR,
JALAN RAJA MUDA ABDUL AZIZ,
KAMPUNG BARU, KUALA LUMPUR


PEJABAT PILIHAN RAYA NEGERI SELANGOR
LOT 03-11, TINGKAT 3,
KOMPLEKS PKNS,
40690 SHAH ALAM,


PEJABAT PILIHAN RAYA NEGERI SABAH
ARAS 2 BLOK A,
KOMPLEKS PENTADBIRAN KERAJAAN PERSEKUTUAN
SABAH, PETI SURAT 10931, 88400 KOTA KINABALU

PEJABAT PILIHAN RAYA NEGERI SARAWAK
TINGKAT 11, BANGUNAN SULTAN ISKANDAR,
JALAN SIMPANG TIGA, PETI SURAT 1366,
93728 KUCHING

PEJABAT PILIHAN RAYA NEGERI PERAK
BLOK A, TINGKAT 1, BANGUNAN PERSEKUTUAN,
JALAN PANGLIMA BUKIT GANTANG WAHAB,
30000 IPOH

PEJABAT PILIHAN RAYA NEGERI JOHOR
TINGKAT 6, BLOK 'B', WISMA PERSEKUTUAN,
JALAN AYER MOLEK, 86900 JOHOR BAHRU


PEJABAT PILIHAN RAYA NEGERI KELANTAN
TINGKAT 9, WISMA PERSEKUTUAN,
JALAN BAYAM, 15690 KOTA BAHRU


PEJABAT PILIHAN RAYA NEGERI PAHANG
TINGKAT 8, WISMA PERSEKUTUAN,
JALAN GAMBUT, 25000 KUANTAN


PEJABAT PILIHAN RAYA NEGERI PULAU PINANG
TINGKAT 36, KOMPLEKS TUN ABDUL RAZAK (KOMTAR),
10000 PULAU PINANG

PEJABAT PILIHAN RAYA NEGERI KEDAH
ARAS 4, ZON A, WISMA PERSEKUTUAN,
PUSAT PENTADBIRAN KERAJAAN PERSEKUTUAN,
06550 BANDAR MUADZAM SHAH,
KEDAH DARUL AMAN


PEJABAT PILIHAN RAYA NEGERI TERENGGANU
TINGKAT 6, WISMA PERSEKUTUAN,
JALAN SULTAN ISMAIL, 20200 KUALA TERENGGANU


PEJABAT PILIHAN RAYA NEGERI MELAKA

TINGKAT 20, MENARA PERSEKUTUAN, JALAN PERSEKUTUAN MITC,
HANG TUAH JAYA,
75450 AYER KEROH,MELAKA


PEJABAT PILIHAN RAYA NEGERI NEGERI SEMBILAN
TINGKAT 6, WISMA PERSEKUTUAN,
70000 SEREMBAN


PEJABAT PILIHAN RAYA NEGERI PERLIS
TINGKAT 1, BANGUNAN KWSP,
JALAN BUKIT LAGI,
01000 KANGAR


b) Go to any computerised post office to register. Remember to check your registration a week or so later on the link above to ascertain that you have been properly registered.

Robert Kuok 对话华商领袖郭鹤年

Unfortunately this very recent very long interview, almost biographical documentary of his life and views, is in Mandarin only. What a great man. I don't say this lightly, I do not worship rich people, it is ten times more important how they obtained, nurture and spend their wealth ... and how they lead their lives.