Daily Market Review | 30-Sept-2015

Just sharing the Hong Leong Investment Bank's research for your daily review. With hope that this insight will help you to make better decisions and ultimately bring more profit to your pockets! Click here to view the PDF.

And there is some worrying news today regarding foreign investors possibly exiting the Malaysian bond market.

Some foreigners may exit local bond market, no major sell-off seen

Let's hope things get better for us in the near future. Happy Trading!

KLCI Slipping Away - Maybe 1,570 by Friday?

The Star published an article KLCI briefly slips below key 1,600 earlier today as we see the index for KLCI falling. There is quite a few uncertainties from the China and US market thus affecting the global economy. Well until we have clear answers to the economy, I would predict the continuous fall of the economy. The following is the full article from The Star or you could click here for it.

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips continued to lose ground early Tuesday, with the FBM KLCI briefly falling below the key 1,600 level on selling of Tenaga and Hong Leong Bank.

At 9.27am, the KLCI was down 5.43 points or 0.34% to 1,603. Turnover was 346.44 million shares valued at RM234.92mil. Decliners beat advancers 277 to 103 while 149 counters were unchanged.

However, more downside was seen after the sharp overnight fall on Wall Street and continued net selling of Malaysian equities by foreign funds.

BIMB Securities Research said there was little impetus for the market to improve thus “we may see the FBM KLCI re-test the 1,600 mark again today”

On the external front, Asian shares skidded to three-week lows and the dollar sagged on Tuesday, after weak Chinese data rekindled worries about its fragile economy and led to sharp losses on Wall Street, according to Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.7% in early trading, touching its lowest levels since Sept 8. Japan's Nikkei stock index tumbled 2.4%.

At Bursa Malaysia, LPI – the major shareholder of Public  Bank --- fell 28 sen to RM13.60. Hong Leong Bank was down 12 sen to RM13.10.

Gamuda lost eight sen to RM4.42. CIMB Equities Research is upbeat on the infrastructure-property based company as the visibility of the next growth cycle is good.

Power giant Tenaga was down eight sen also  to RM11.96.

KESM was down eight sen also to RM4.10. Fitch Ratings believes the revenue from the highly fragmented outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) industry could fall by 10% during 2015-16.

http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/Business-News/2015/09/28/Fitch-sees-semicon-outsourcing-revenue-falling-by-10pct/?style=biz 

United Plantations added 20 sen to RM26.20 in thin trade while Hap Seng Plantations added 15 sen to RM2.20.

BAT managed to eke out some small gains after the last selling the previous day, adding 18 sen to RM60.98.

Hartalega displayed its resilience with the glove maker adding 15 sen to RM5.13.

Petronas Gas added eight sen to RM21.94.

Daily Market Review | 29-Sept-2015

Just sharing the Hong Leong Investment Bank's research for your daily review. With hope that this insight will help you to make better decisions and ultimately bring more profit to your pockets! Click here to view the PDF.

And here are some of the headlines that you might be interested to know more.

Emerging stocks decline, extend five-week slump

Emerging markets rout stirs unease about capital curbs

MEA: No rating review for Malaysia expected in next six months

Oil down nearly 3% on Wall Street, China; Cushing draw limits loss

Wall Street drops sharply as anxious investors eye China

In my opinion, things does not look good yet at this point of time due to uncertainties all around the globe. Do trade with caution. Happy Trading!

Daily Market Review | 28-Sept-2015

Just sharing the Hong Leong Investment Bank's research for your daily review. With hope that this insight will help you to make better decisions and ultimately bring more profit to your pockets! Click here to view the PDF.

And this might be an important piece of news for the FGV investors.

No Bank Negara green light yet for FGV purchase of PT Eagle stake

Happy Trading!

Premier League Action - Results & Highlights

The early kick off for the Premiership saw Tottenham Hotspur playing host to Manchester City. Manchester City was previously having a great run in the league until their last defeat to West Ham. Tottenham on the other hand was beginning to gain momentum with 2 wins under their belt. Manchester City was without a few influential players due to injury and that might have cost them the game after taking the lead. All credit to the Spurs team for picking up themselves after going 1 goal down first.

Check out the highlights courtesy from YouTube.

Tottenham 4 Manchester City 1

Leicester City took on Arsenal and once again their counter attack resulted in the opening goal. Leicester was unlucky as the woodwork kept them out twice through the first half. Else it would have been game over for Arsenal after 16 minutes of the opening play. The work rate from Alexis Sanchez is fantastic and with that, he seems to be at the right place at the right time to score the goals. Overall, it was a great display shown by the Arsenal team with a strong mentality to bounce back after going a goal down.

Leicester City 2 Arsenal 5

Liverpool play host to Aston Villa and was in desperate need to secure a victory. The goal came from their captain James Milner and it was a fantastic way to kick start the match. Liverpool's top scorer Daniel Sturridge from the previous season was back from injury and he was instantly on the score sheet once again. The Liverpool defense were napping and it allowed Aston Villa to score 2 goals.

Liverpool 3 Aston Villa 2

The Red Devils were against the Black Cats and this encounter was definitely a one sided match. Manchester United was piling up on the pressure since the kick off and they were rewarded with the goal on the 45th minute. A quick goal for United after the break killed off the game for sure. Sunderland has a couple of attempts but good work from David De Gea kept the pressure off for United. All in all another great home victory for the Red Devils.

Manchester United 3 Sunderland 0

Chelsea travelled to St James Park for their match against Newcastle. Sloppy defending from the defending champions allowed Newcastle to take the lead. Newcastle added the second goal on the 60th minute to be 2 goals up at home. Jose Mourinho immediately made 2 substitutions to change it to a more attacking minded Chelsea. They were rewarded with a goal by Ramires at the 79th minute mark by a fantastic strike from the Brazilian. Chelsea managed to score the equalizer but failed to push on and grab 3 points. All square at St. James Park.

Newcastle 2 Chelsea 2

Other scores from yesterday's kick off.

Southampton 3 Swansea City 1

Stoke City 2 AFC Bournemouth 1

West Ham 2 Norwich City 2

Manchester City's loss was definitely the talk of the week together with Chelsea's inability to exert their dominance over Newcastle. Jose Mourinho's team has been struggling in the Premier League for a few games now with inconsistency. West Ham United is still sitting in the Top 3 of the Premier League table even with the draw yesterday. Liverpool got the victory that they were hunting for and lastly, Manchester United's win puts them at the top of the Premier League table for now.

NASDAQ:GOOGL DOWN 2.25% | WHY THE HUGE FALL?

It is definitely not something common in the KLCI where we see one share making a loss of 14.76 in one day. Of course within that drastic drop there should be a valid explanation on why the investors or the market reacted that way. Check out the article from The Markets Daily for a review of a rating for Google which might have influenced that drop for the share yesterday.

Image source: Google Finance

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Given a Crowd Sourced Rating of 2.86

Shares of Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) have been given an average rating of 2.86 according to Closingbell.co. Closing Bell compiles crowd-sourced stock ratings provided by independent analysts, investors, traders and students. The data provides an alternative view on a stock in comparison to sell-side ratings analyst ratings. The last recorded rating was on 2015-09-12 and there are currently 7 active ratings on the site, with 1 giving a Moderate Buy rating and 0 seeing it as a Strong Buy. The ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale where 5 represents a Strong Buy and 1 a Strong Sell.

PsychSignal, a proprietary “Natural Language Processing Engine” tuned precisely to the language individual traders and investors use online, has recently identified 1544 posts which mention Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) on Twitter and StockTwits.

PsychSignal technology utilizes the wisdom of the crowds in order to extract meaningful analysis not achievable through the study of single individuals. Of the 1544 messages that were posted on 2015-09-24, 195 were bullish in nature while 71 were deemed to be bearish. PsychSignal’s algorithms score each message’s language for the strength of bullishness present on a 0-4 scale. 0 indicates no bullish sentiment measured, 4 indicates strongest bullish sentiment measured. Using this scale, Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) received a Bullish sentiment of 1.68241. On the other hand, the algorithm also tracks bearishness on a scale of 0-4 where 0 indicates no bearish sentiment and 4 would indicate strong bearish sentiment. On 2015-09-24, the score for the company was at 1.509577. The net score when combining numbers in order to provide a combined score yields a Bull-Bear score of 0.172833.

Taking a closer look at the data, shows that of the 1402 total messages posted on Twitter, 162 were bullish and 58 were bearish. On StockTwits, there were 20 bullish posts on the stock compared to 11 bearish comments, yielding a bullish intensity of 1.938 and a bearish intensity of 2.328182.

Now taking a look at Wall Street analyst sentiment where analyst recommendations are simplified on a 1-5 scale, Google Inc. is rated 1.22 according to the analysts polled by Zacks research. Three months ago analysts had a consensus rating of 1.43 on the equity. Price targets issued by sell-side analysts range from $620 to $850. The mean consensus price target from the 27 providing projections stands at $744.814.

Investors will be watching how these numbers move leading up to when the company is scheduled to report their earnings release on or around 2015-10-15. Analysts covering the stock are projecting earnings per share of $5.86.

About Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Google Inc. (Google) is a global technology company. The Company’s business is primarily focused around key areas, such as search, advertising, operating systems and platforms, enterprise and hardware products. The Company generates revenue primarily by delivering online advertising. The Company also generates revenues from Motorola by selling hardware products. The Company provides its products and services in more than 100 languages and in more than 50 countries, regions, and territories. Effective May 16, 2014, Google Inc acquired Quest Visual Inc. Effective May 20, 2014, Google Inc acquired Enterproid Inc, doing business as Divide. In June 2014, Google Inc acquired mDialog Corp. Effective June 25, 2014, Google Inc acquired Appurify Inc, a San Francisco-based developer of mobile bugging application software.

Daily Market Review | 25-Sept-2015

Just sharing the Hong Leong Investment Bank's research for your daily review. With hope that this insight will help you to make better decisions and ultimately bring more profit to your pockets! Click here to view the PDF.

And here are some of the major headlines which might be of interest to you. Click on the links below to access the full article.

Global equities’ slide to weigh on KLCI 

KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 25): The FBM KLCI could remain lacklustre today for the fifth day running in line with the overnight slide at global equity markets.

Stocks around the world fell for a fifth day on Thursday, sliding towards two-year lows, as worries lingered over global economic growth and the scandal over Volkswagen's emissions test-cheating rattled Europe's carmakers, according to Reuters.

1MDB draws up Edra list, TNB included

PETALING JAYA: 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) has reportedly shortlisted several foreign parties, including Qatar’s Nebras Power QSC, Hong Kong-listed CGN Meiya Power Holdings Co and Saudi Arabia-based ACWA Power International for the sale of its power generation arm, Edra Global Energy Bhd.


Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) has also been selected to participate in the sales of 1MDB’s power plants, according to a report by Bloomberg. 


Happy Trading!

Tottenham Vs Arsenal 1-2 - All Goals & Match Highlights

Arsenal emerged victorious in the North London derby and who would have thought Mathieu Flamini would be the match winner by scoring a brace. This is also the first game where Flamini scored a couple of goals. 

Both teams had their chances but more so for the Gunners. The defending for Spurs was a bit poor and it did cause themselves more problems. It was definitely an entertaining match with lots of attempts from both teams to get on the score sheet.

Check out the highlights below from YouTube.

North London Derby | Tottenham vs Arsenal

The Capital One Cup is The Football League’s showpiece cup competition and is one of the three major honours of the domestic football season.

Tonight we have the clash between Tottenham and Arsenal which is also the North London derby. As usual in the derby matches, the intensity for the matches increase and the fans would expect their team to emerge winners.

The home side playing at White Hart Lane would be pressing hard for a win at home. Mauricio Pochettino took the Capital One Cup seriously enough last season to guide Tottenham Hotspur to the Final at Wembley Stadium.

Tottenham Hotspur are unbeaten in their last 6 games in all competitions since a 1-0 loss at Manchester United, while they are back in some sort of form having won 3 in a row heading into this game. They are unbeaten in 5 games at White Hart Lane in all competitions and Tottenham Hotspur have won consecutive games here over the last seven days.

No new injuries for the team so we can expect a strong team against Arsenal. The hero for last week, Son Heung-Min will be hoping that he gains the playing time to prove himself in front of the fans against. Harry Kane will be hoping to open his goal scoring account too. It will be an interesting encounter against Arsenal for this competition.

Arsenal's great run in the Premier League was halted by Chelsea with a 2-0 loss to the defending Champions.Frustrations boiled through the match with red cards from Gabriel Paulista and Santi Cazorla which eventually changed the whole game plan for the Gunners. Arsene Wenger will have to prepare his team both mentality and physically for this derby match. 

No new injuries but Arsenal will be without midfielder Francis Coquelin because of a knee injury. Per Mertesacker is available following illness and fellow defender Gabriel could also feature after having a three-match ban overturned on Tuesday afternoon. Midfielder Santi Cazorla is suspended after he was sent off at Chelsea on Saturday.

Manager Arsene Wenger is expected to rotate his squad, with the likes of youngsters Alex Iwobi and Glen Kamara likely to be included. David Ospina should be selected between the posts for this match.

For this match, Arsenal is giving 0.25 ball under the Asian Handicap and in my opinion this would be a great opportunity to take the home team. Go with Tottenham for the victory at home!

Lackluster Market | More Booster?

The KLCI index fell 21.40 points or 1.31% to 1613.97 for the first half of the day. 

PBBANK at 17.68 down 44 cents or 2.43%

The PBBANK share experienced a drastic fall in the share price. From the announcements page, there was a huge quantity of the share being disposed by EPF yesterday. PBBANK should end the day with a loss.

Maybe some of these recent news might be affecting the KLSE today.

China factory PMI unexpectedly falls to 6-1/2-year low; more stimulus likely

Malaysia's international reserves up by RM2.6bil

Banks weigh on KLCI while Asian markets fall

Tips on investing in the current unpredictable market conditions

DIGI at 5.47, down 12 cents or 2.15%

The last announcement for the share showed large amounts of shares being disposed by EPF while seeing smaller portions being acquired. It would not be surprising that the earlier session was full of profit taking as the share price has increased tremendously over the past week or so. 

I would say in this lackluster market, you will be seeing more profit taking from the investors. Those previously boosted counters seem to be experiencing large quantity of sales for their shares. Maybe there might be another booster package?

Daily Market Review | 23-Sept-2015

Just sharing the Hong Leong Investment Bank's research for your daily review. With hope that this insight will help you to make better decisions and ultimately bring more profit to your pockets! Click here to view the PDF.

And here is some of the highlights of today's business news.

Westports container tariff hike postponed for another month
New York investors concerned about developments in Malaysia
Kelington secures S$21m contract
U.S Crude futures fall mildly, as fears of softening demand persist

Maybe there might be an opportunity in each and every post. Happy Trading!

Daily Market Review | 22-Sept-2015

Just sharing the Hong Leong Investment Bank's research for your daily review. With hope that this insight will help you to make better decisions and ultimately bring more profit to your pockets! Click here to view the PDF.

And here is some of the highlights of today's business news.

Alliance Bank to raise RM4bil
Bursa falls in line with regional markets
Debt-laden 1MDB starts Pulau Indah land sale tender process
Zeti: Financial community observing how M’sia handles 1MDB issues

Trade with care! Happy Trading!

Short term booster with no sustainability!

Of course everyone knows about the injection of cash into the stock market by the government. It is suppose to push the index to another level and also to help those undervalued counters. Unfortunately at this time of day, it is HIT & RUN Strategy which I believe and it is clearly seen that the new price for those counters are no longer sustainable.

AIRPORT at 5.38 on 21-Sep-2015

On 7-Sep-2015, the lowest price for this share was at 4.30 and it rose to its highest in that 2 weeks to 5.75. There was a sharp increase in the share price after the announcement from the government regarding the investments to be injected into KLSE. Today the share suffered a drastic drop of 31 cents or 5.45% drop in the share price. You could refer to the Announcements page for the investments by our EPF towards this share for the past month. What will be the future of this share? At this point of time, the share price seems a bit undervalued but natural increase in price through strong performance is always the best way moving forward.

GENM at 4.04 on 21-Sep-2015

The share price for GENM was hovering around 4.00 and the lowest seen within this month was at 3.94 on 8-Sep-2015. The share price increased drastically on last Tuesday, 15-Sep-2015. That day itself, the share price rose 22 cents to 4.41 and the next day, it rose to its highest of 4.60. However it closed for the day at 4.44. Today's drastic decrease in the price see the share losing 33 cents or 7.55% from its previous value! A quick check on the Announcements page didn't show anything which is irregular. 

The Malaysian banks also suffered losses today.

MAYBANK closed at 8.41 down 29 cents or 3.33%

CIMB closed at 4.78 down 17 cents or 3.43%

HLBANK closed at 13.30 down 18 cents of 1.34%

PBBANK closed at 18.40 down 12 cents or 0.65%

And The Sun Daily has an article about today's performance for the KLSE.

Bursa Malaysia ends lower on weaker buying sentiment

Definitely a few things to consider and ponder about. Do think about it carefully and strategize a bit before investing in the next counter. Wishing you the best and Happy Trading!

AirAsia soars on share buyback proposal

Just sharing an article from The Edge regarding AirAsia's intentions on share buyback. The original article can be viewed from here. 

KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 21): AirAsia Bhd ( Valuation: 1.20, Fundamental: 0.20) increased as much as six sen or 5% to become Bursa Malaysia's most active counter.

AirAsia rose to its highest so far today at RM1.37, on the budget airline's proposal to buy back up to 10% of its issued shares.

At 11:06am, AirAsia pared gains at RM1.36, with some 48 million shares done. Based on the company's issued base of 2.78 billion shares, the group had a market capitalisation of RM3.75 billion.

The current share price compares with AirAsia's latest reported net assets per share of RM1.71.

Over the last one year, AirAsia shares had traded at their intraday high at RM2.90 on Dec 26, 2014; before falling to a low at 76.5 sen on Aug 26, 2015.

Last Friday (Sept 18), AirAsia told Bursa Malaysia that it planned to repurchase its shares, following the airline's shareholders' approval.

AirAsia said the exercise aimed to stabilise the price of its shares. The exercise is also intended to prevent speculation of AirAsia shares, when undervalued, to enhance investors' confidence.

As the share buyback will reduce the company's issued share base, it said the exercise would also improve the earnings per share of AirAsia.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)

There was an article by The Star over the weekend regarding AirAsia flying high again. Something worth reading if you are really in this share counter. It has been a fantastic 3 weeks for AirAsia rising from 0.87 to its current 1.37. What's the potential of this share still? It is definitely undervalued but no one will know how soon the market and this counter can recover. Do invest with caution! Happy Trading!

Daily Market Review | 21-Sept-2015

Just sharing the Hong Leong Investment Bank's research for your daily review. With hope that this insight will help you to make better decisions and ultimately bring more profit to your pockets! Click here to view the PDF.

Do check out the major headlines for today as they might have an impact on the share market too.

The hidden gems of the Malaysian stock exchange

Happy Trading!

Match of the Week | Chelsea vs Arsenal

It is an early kick off and definitely the match of the week for the Barclays Premier League. The match starts at 07:45PM GMT+8 and Chelsea will play host to Arsenal. Another derby match where both teams will want to be more superior than their neighbours. 

For the home team, they hold a better record against their rival. The stats since 21-Aug-2005 for Chelsea. The Blues have won 7, drew 1 and lost 2 in the last 10 home games against Arsenal. That is for sure a fantastic record against a giant club like Arsenal. Even though Arsenal managed to win the Charity Shield in the month of April, Arsene Wenger is definitely struggling to beat the tactics of Jose Mourinho.

Arsenal got off midweek with a loss in their Champions League match. However, their recent record in the Premier League is pretty decent with a solid win against Stoke City at home and an away victory at St. James Park against Newcastle. Jack Wilshere and Danny Welbeck are the key players who will be sidelined.

Image source: www.soccerbase.com

The odds for this game is Chelsea giving 0.25 ball to Arsenal. Chelsea has a few key players missing like Willian, Radamel Falcao and Thibaut Courtois. Pedro and Oscar might be fit enough for this game but it might be a gamble to have them into this game as you wouldn't want them to have a more serious injury from the one that they have picked up.

My prediction for this game is with the odds given to Arsenal, it would be in Arsenal's advantage for sure. The Arsenal squad has been resilient in the Premier League and I would believe they will keep their composure against Chelsea. One thing to keep in mind is Chelsea always has that advantage when it comes to facing Arsenal. Anyhow, I'm predicting either a draw game for this one or Arsenal stealing the victory with a more composed and focused squad. Arsenal for the WIN!

Top Gainers for 17-Sep-2015

If we look at the Top Gainers from the past day, it is pretty clear cut that some of the BIG NAMES might have been on the list that shows the counters are way below the market value.

ASTRO at 3.08 closing on 17-Sep-2015

ASTRO gained 9 cents on 17-Sep-2015 which is equivalent to 1% increase in the share price. I believe the increase in interest from the investors for this share counter might be related to its announcement for SECOND INTERIM DIVIDEND. With a payout of 2.75 cents for the share, it might be something that attracts the investors.

GENTING at 7.90 closing on 17-Sep-2015

GENTING closed on 15-Sep at 7.22. The share price jumped up to 7.43 when the market resumed on 17-Sep and closed at 7.90. That's an increase of 9.4% of the share price within 1 day! I believe the announcement of FORMATION OF A NEW INDIRECT SUBSIDIARY will not be such good news to push the share price up that far.

DIGI at 5.79 closing on 17-Sep-2015

DIGI gained 5.2% on Thursday and closed at 5.79 which translates to 29 cents increase on that day itself. The share price was around 5.25 a week ago and it has now gained at least 54 cents! That's an astonishing 10.3% increase in the share price. If you do check the section for Announcements you would not be able to find any outstanding or spectacular news which might be able to boost the share price up this way. Don't get me wrong as I believe in the strength of that company but within a week it managed to jump up that much does seem questionable.

As a conclusion, I would advise the investors to ride with the wave if you do know which counters might be enjoying the additional boost from the funds. Do remember that the market is volatile and anything can happen. Invest in your own affordability measures and may you gain in whatever counters you do invest! Happy Trading!

Daily Market Review | 18-Sept-2015

Just sharing the Hong Leong Investment Bank's research for your daily review. With hope that this insight will help you to make better decisions and ultimately bring more profit to your pockets! Click here to view the PDF.

Do read up on the global news like the following regarding the impact of the interest rates hike as below. Whether you like it or not, the US market has an influence around the global shores.

Federal Reserve Shies Away From Rate Hike As Global Growth Fears Take Root

Asian shares seen falling, dollar soft after Fed holds rates

Global economy worries prompt Fed to hold rates steady

Treat this article as a guidance and maybe hint for the day which is about to start later on. 

Happy Trading!

Daily Market Review | 17-Sept-2015

Just sharing the Hong Leong Investment Bank's research for your daily review. With hope that this insight will help you to make better decisions and ultimately bring more profit to your pockets! Click here to view the PDF.

Treat this article as a guidance and maybe hint for the day which is about to start later on. My personal advice is what is written in here and the reality might be different. Trade with caution. 

Happy Trading!

Market View | Special Economic Committee Measures

We know about the announcement from the Prime Minister regarding the booster that will be injected into KLSE to help those undervalued counters. It is also in accordance with the Government's on-going commitment to stabilize the stock market and safeguarding the economic growth.

Click on the link here to download and view the article written by the Hong Leong Investment Bank Research Team to understand better regarding that move and the impact towards the market. The article do states the industries gaining from this assistance and some of the counters which will be favourites to receive such boosters.

Hope you find this article useful and may this help you to gain profit in KLSE. Happy Trading!

Injection of Cash to Local Market

In today's Business News in The Star newspapers, it seems that Tabung Haji will bring back their foreign investments to invest in the local property investments. With moves like this, the local market will soon receive a boost and many local property companies will benefit from it. The question is which few companies will benefit from the investments of Tabung Haji. Of course if we know the answers now then it would make our investments much easier.

So who do you think will be the lucky one to receive the financial push to their companies? We will soon know about it.

The article extracted from The Star as below or you can click here for the full article.

Tabing Haji to bring back RM1bil from overseas

KUALA LUMPUR: As part of efforts to boost the nation’s economy, Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH) expects to bring back to the country RM1bil from its foreign property investments besides allocating about RM3.5bil for local property investments.

“As an Islamic institution and catalyst for the national economy, TH is responding to the Prime Minister’s call to enhance the stability of the financial market via existing and new initiatives to enable TH to actively participate in domestic investments with high multiplier effect,” the statutory body said in a statement.

TH said existing inititives include the RM200mil RIA Fund launched on April 2 to spur bumiputra small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) development, for which loans worth RM60.5mil have been approved as of July 31.

TH will also invest in integrated livestock rearing to reduce the nation’s imports, and has approved allocations to enable it to take in 700 people under the 1Malaysia Training Programme.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak yesterday announced proactive measures to boost the economy, including encouraging government-linked companies as well as private firms to repatriate their profits back and invest in high-multiplier local projects. — Bernama