Market wrap: US stocks rose more than 2% on Tuesday, bouncing after steep losses last week and a China-fuelled rebound in global equities. Gains were broad-based and followed a three-day US holiday weekend. All but one of the 10 major S&P sectors - energy - ended with gains of more than 2%. - Reuters
The DJIA rose 390.3 points, or 2.42%, to 16,492.68, the S&P 500 gained 48.19 points, or 2.51%, to 1,969.41 and the Nasdaq added 128.01 points, or 2.73%, to 4,811.93.
Forex summary
*The ringgit rose 0.89% to 4.3005 per US$
*It increased 0.82% to 4.8133 per euro
*Up 0.47% to 6.6396 to the pound sterling
*0.35% higher to 3.0397 per Singapore dollar
*Up 0.10% to 3.0258 per Aussie
*0.93% higher to 3.5873 per 100 yen
Energy
Brent crude settled up 4% on Tuesday as strength in stock markets helped the global oil benchmark recoup the bulk of its losses from the previous session. US crude fell slightly in volatile trade, reopening from Monday's US markets closure for the Labour Day holiday to news of refinery outages. London-traded Brent LCOc1 settled up US$1.89 at US$49.52 a barrel. Reuters
Top foreign news
United Airlines CEO steps down amid probe: United Continental Holdings Inc said on Tuesday chief executive Jeff Smisek had stepped down in connection with a federal probe of the airline, and that two other senior executives tied to the investigation would also be leaving. Oscar Munoz, a United board member and CSX Corp chief operating officer, was immediately tapped as CEO. - Reuters
GE clears final hurdle to US$14bil Alstom deal: General Electric has won EU approval for its 12.4-billion-euro (US$13.9 billion) acquisition of Alstom's power business after agreeing to sell some of the French company's turbine assets to Italian rival Ansaldo Energia. The US conglomerate's acquisition of Alstom's energy business - its largest deal ever - will bring together two of the world's biggest manufacturers of power plant hardware and is crucial to GE's plans to increase its focus on industrial operations and shift away from finance. - Reuters
Buffett says Berkshire still shopping abroad: Billionaire investing icon Warren Buffett said on Tuesday there are dozens of countries in which his sprawling Berkshire Hathaway Inc conglomerate would be interested in buying new businesses. Berkshire earlier this year agreed to acquire a German motorcycle apparel and accessories retailer - a purchase that Buffett described as an advertisement to markets that he is shopping abroad. - Reuters
Fed should wait with raising rates: World Bank economist: The US Federal Reserve should hold off on raising interest rates until the global economy is more stable, the World Bank's chief economist said in an interview with the Financial Times. “I don’t think the Fed lift-off itself is going to create a major crisis but it will cause some immediate turbulence,” Kaushik Basu said. - Reuters
Aerojet makes US$2bil offer for Lockheed-Boeing JV: Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc has submitted a US$2 billion offer to buy United Launch Alliance, a spacecraft launch services provider that is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, sources said. - Reuters
Top local stories
More money into TH Heavy: Lembaga Tabung Haji emerged as the sole subscriber of TH Heavy Engineering Bhd’s rights issue of preference shares to raise RM275mil. TH Heavy is the oil and gs arm of LTH. - StarBiz
Water deal done: The long drawn-out water deal between the Selangor and federal governments was finally concluded with the signing of the final four agreements by both parties. Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili said Pengurusan Air Selangor had two weeks to take over Puncak Niaga (M) Sdn Bhd and Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) followed by the takeover of Konsortium ABASS Sdn Bhd with- in the next four months. - StarBiz
Scomi to submit RM8.6bil worth of O&G tenders: Scomi Group Bhd is expected to submit US$2bil (RM8.67bil) worth of oil and gas (O&G) tenders for the financial year 2016. Its business development and communications vice-president Zubaidi Harun said as at July 2015, bids worth US$1.3bil were submitted and tenders worth US$140mil were awarded. - Bernama
Dufu engages services of former CEO’s firm: Hard-disk drive manufacturer Dufu Technology Corp Bhd
has appointed an independent contractor to train the acting CEO of its wholly owned subsidiary Dufu Industries Sdn Bhd (DISB). Penang- based Dufu said DISB had entered into an agreement for independent contractor services with Aspire Ambience Sdn Bhd to perform the services including training DISB the acting CEO for RM40,000 a month. - StarBiz
Boustead Plantations selling land to YTL Cement: Boustead Plantations Bhd and a subsidiary have agreed to dispose of several parcels of land land in Johor to YTL Cement Bhd. - StarBiz
BSN signs 5-year deal with TM: Bank Simpanan Nasional has signed a five-year deal with Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) to further improve the bank’s current operational efficiencies and to boost its customer base, where it currently serves 10 million people nation- wide. The agreement is for the new Converged Network Transformation Project, in which TM will be delivering Wide Area Network services connecting 413 BSN branches nationwide. - StarBiz
CIO: Astro is well-hedged: Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd said the company is “well hedged” to ride out the volatility in the currency market. Chief investment officer Raymond Tan said debts undertaken by Astro had also been hedged till maturity in both its principal and interest rates. - StarBiz
SapKen issues first RM845mil sukuk: SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd has made its first issuance of US$200mil (RM845.8mil) sukuk under its RM7bil multi-currency sukuk programme. The oil and gas giant said its unit SapuraKencana TMC Sdn Bhd will use the proceeds to refinance some existing debts. - StarBiz
Affin Hwang next to retrench? Affin Hwang Capital had sent out an email to its staff recently informing them of an im- pending rationalisation and consolidation exercise, sources said. This has sparked speculation that the investment banking arm of Affin Holdings Bhd could be the next financial group to announce job cuts as the operating environment in the investment banking industry is getting harsh. - digitaledge
Moody’s cuts Malaysia’s 2016 GDP growth to 4.5%: Moody’s Investor Service has cut its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for Malaysia to 4.5% next year from 5%, but maintained its GDP growth fore- cast of 4.8% for the country this year. In a note on the Asia-Pacific region on Tuesday, Moody’s said the weakening sentiment is cooling private sector consumption and investment, compounding soft external demand conditions. - digitaledge
TNB among four shortlisted for 1MDB power unit sale: Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) is one of four suitors shortlisted for the final round of bidding in state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s (1MDB) sale of its power unit Edra Global Energy Bhd, banking sources said. 1MDB said it had compiled a shortlist for Edra - valued by bankers at around RM10 billion - but it did not identify the four parties. - Reuters
Win a prize this Mother's Day by subscribing to our annual plan now! T&C applies.
