22 theSun | MONDAY JANUARY 5 2009

business

market summary
INDICES
FBMEMAS
COMPOSITE
CHANGE
5857.38
894.36
JANUARY 2, 2008

+130.92
+17.61
Monitor ringgit speculation
abroad: Ex-KLSE boss
CONSUMER 283.10 +1.07
IND-PROD 67.89 +1.01
CONSTRUCTION 168.64 +4.46
TRAD/SERV 119.53 +1.62
FINANCE 6925.21 +133.50
PROPERTIES 525.84 +10.23
PLANTATION 4423.74 +280.94
MINING 237.09 +6.08
INDUSTRIAL 2088.79 +24.94 KUALA LUMPUR: Ringgit speculation weakened to RM3.51,” Salleh said. their working hours by an additional 10
FBMSHA 6097.43 +147.80 abroad should be monitored so that He said the ringgit, which strength- minutes each.
FBM2BRD 4032.13 +24.82 Malaysia does not become a victim of ened at one stage to RM4.80 to the euro, “With an estimated two million work-
TECHNOLOGY 13.88 +0.19 opportunistic groups seeking to gain has now declined to the RM5.06 level. ers, 20 million minutes can be added
TURNOVER VALUE from the fall of the local currency, Datuk Salleh, who is a principal fellow with each day. If we set RM10 for each man-
507.411mil RM682,420mil
Muhammad Salleh Majid said yesterday. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Faculty hour, then productivity is increased to
“Our economy is not in recession and of Economics and Management, said the RM3.3 million each daily, which works
our currency should not be lower than ringgit has also dropped against the Sin- out to around RM60 million monthly and
Share prices expected gapore dollar to the RM2.44 level though RM720 million annually,” he said.
to be firmer The ringgit has reached the republic is currently facing what it
described as a technical recession.
Salleh also cited a study which showed
that the productivity lost by Malaysians
SHARE prices on Bursa Malaysia are likely to as high as RM3.10 to the US “There are some who considered the as a result of traffic jams amounted to
trade firmer this week amid active participa- ringgit’s decline to be good for our exports two-and-a-half days each month.
tion by retail and institutional investors, with dollar in April last year but now but in a situation of falling export volume, “It’s no use talking about increasing
most of them returning from year-end holidays,
analysts said.
even with the American economy this does not help,” he said.
“In fact, we will face an increase in
productivity if we are able to only reduce
a little the rest hour and tea break.”
They said there should be some relief rallies in recession, our currency has imports because the value of our ringgit On the stock market, Salleh said those
just like in the past with the market barometer has fallen,” he added. worried about the market uncertainties
KKCI remaining in positive territory as domestic weakened to RM3.51.” He also noted that during the 1997- should expect the crisis to be only tem-
fundamentals are still remain intact. – Salleh Majid 1998 Asian financial crisis, the ringgit porary.
Bank Negara Malaysia’s governor Tan Sri was at the RM2.50 level to the US dollar “The shares of some companies have
Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz said recently the country those of countries already in recession,” and “there was no problem in selling our dropped due to market sentiment and not
was not projecting a recession in 2009 and the former president of the then Kuala products at that time”. because of their performance. Such com-
the government has the flexibility to provide Lumpur Stock Exchange told Bernama. On productivity, Salleh said that it was panies should be given the opportunity
further stimulus if needed. “The ringgit has reached as high as relatively simple to overcome the prob- to buy when their shares are low so as to
According to her, domestic demand, which RM3.10 to the US dollar in April last lem concerning loss of productivity. invest for the long term,” he said.
is expected to moderate, will still be able to year but now even with the American He proposed that every worker, both “Another way of looking at a crisis is
contribute to economic growth in 2009. economy in recession, our currency has in the public and private sectors, increase to see it as an opportunity,” he added.
The country is expected to record growth
of 3.5% this year.
This year will provide investors an opportu-
nity for bargain-hunting of blue chip companies HSBC’s
at reasonable prices, said Malaysian Investors’
Association’s president Datuk Dr P.H.S. Lim.
“Companies that face a challenging time but
foray into
Islamic
Johor looking at oil refinery proposal
will be able to perform well may include fast banking MUAR: The Johor state centres in the area before giv- on Friday evening. went to Johor.
food operators like KFC, supermarket chains pg 24 government is looking at a ing approval. Abdul Ghani said an Abdul Ghani said he hoped
like AEON, and food and beverage companies proposal by an international He was informed of the industrial impact study was that the federal government
like F&N and Nestle while healthcare compa- company to invest RM17 investment proposal through needed because oil refining will give attention to small
nies can be good defensive picks besides banks billion to construct an oil re- a letter from the Malaysian could affect the livelihood of projects in the second eco-
barring unforeseen circumstances,” he said. finery at Teluk Ramunia, Kota Industrial Development Au- the fishermen and the tourism nomic stimulus package to be
Analysts have pegged the immediate resist- Tinggi. thority (Mida) three days ago. industry if there was pollu- announced by Deputy
ance for KLCI at the 900-point level and strong Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul “The state government tion. Prime Minister Datuk Seri
support at the 750-point level. Ghani Othman said the state does not have any problem in He also said that Johor was Najib Abdul Razak soon.
The KLCI closed the week 27.01 points government was assessing preparing a site for the pur- still being favoured by foreign He said small projects were
higher at 894.36 as against 867.35 registered the effects of the project on the pose because we have about investors although the world important for Class F contrac-
at the end of the previous week. – Bernama lives of fishermen and tourist 1,200ha for the industrial sec- was facing an economic tors to get jobs, thus activat-
tor at Teluk Ramunia,” Abdul downturn due to the financial ing downstream economic
Ghani said. crisis in the United States. activities at the grassroots
He was speaking to report- According to him, statistics level, similar
ers after a gathering with showed that 28& or almost to the measure taken by
leaders of Umno Cawangan one-third of the overall in- Malaysia during the 1997-1998
Zon Kesang at Kesang Batu 7 vestment value in the country economic crisis. – Bernama

NEC M’sia eyes

bigger telephony
market share
KUALA LUMPUR: NEC Corporation of Malaysia
Sdn Bhd aims to increase its share of the local
enterprise telephony market to 25% from 15%
currently, driven by the company’s new com-
munication servers.
The new servers, comprising the Univerge
SV8100 and SV8300, are designed to help
small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
tailor their communications needs based
on user roles rather than having technology
dictates how the users communicate.
“We target to sell around 500 to 600 units
of the communication servers this year as the
demand for Internet Protocol (IP) is increas-
ing and we have to catch up with the market
demand,” managing director Daisaku Takeuchi
told Bernama in an interview recently.
The servers were launched last month and
the company has already received orders for
10 to 20 units.
Takeuchi said the communication serves
would provide a roadmap and investment
protection for current NEC customers while
offering a secure and robust platform for new
customers to begin consolidating their busi-
ness communications.
“With this concept, the SV8100 and
SV8300 will encourage the deployment of
IP-based infrastructure in small and medium
businesses and the enterprise market seg-
ment,” he said.