Top foreign and local stories at 3.45pm

Energy

Brent crude was down 0.43% to US$27.76 per  barrel at 2.17pm.

Forex

Ringgit up 0.24% to 4.3843 versus the US dollar at 2.42pm.

Top foreign stories

ECB set to ring in New Year with policy on hold: The European Central Bank (ECB) will not announce any new policy measures at its first meeting of the year on Thursday, but will keep the door open for further easing later in face of the latest financial market turmoil, analysts predicted. — AFP

BoJ’s Kuroda says no plan to adopt negative rates now: Bank of Japan (BoJ) governor Haruhiko Kuroda said he is not thinking of adopting a negative interest rate policy now, signalling that any further monetary easing will likely take the form of an expansion of its current massive asset-buying programme. — Reuters

Greek PM Tsipras set for Schaeuble showdown at Davos: Switzerland: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras readied to lock horns with his eurozone foe German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Thursday in what is certain to be one of the headline events at the World Economic Forum in Davos. — AFP

Taiwan’s Hon Hai offers US$5.3b for Sharp, plans to keep management: Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co has offered 625 billion yen (US$5.3 billion) to buy Sharp Corp and has no plans to replace top management, a gesture aimed at reassuring Japanese authorities worried about an overseas takeover, the Wall Street Journal reported. — Reuters

China’s stock regulator says market circuit breaker not appropriate: The suspended stock market circuit breaker mechanism was not an appropriate policy for China, the deputy head of the country’s securities regulator told CNN, two weeks after the mechanism was halted. — Reuters

Barclays bank to cut 1,000 jobs: Report: Troubled British bank Barclays is to make a new round of job cuts, axing more than 1,000 positions across its New York, London and particularly its Asia divisions, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday. — AFP

GM starts car-sharing service in Germany, US: General Motors Co (GM) said on Thursday it is launching a car-sharing service called Maven in the United States and Germany, joining at least two other automakers testing the market for consumers who want to borrow cars rather than own them. — Reuters

Top local stories

Maybank sets up US$3b notes programme: Malayan Banking Bhd has set up a US$3bil structured note programme which, it said on Thursday, will enable it to issue structured notes in countries outside the United States and Malaysia. — StarBiz

Ecofirst Q2 profit rises to RM11.7m: Property developer Ecofirst Consolidated Bhd’s net profit jumped to RM11.74mil in the second quarter from RM150,000 previously. Its pre-tax profit also jumped to RM12.9mil from RM3.4mil in the preceding quarter on reversal of over-provision of tax penalties and interests. Revenue rose to RM23.62mil against RM5.35mil a year earlier. — StarBiz

MAA sees lower car sales in 2016: The Malaysian Automotive Association is projecting a lower total industry volume (TIV) for this year against 2015, with sales slumping by 2.5%, and hopefully a recovery in 2017. MAA president Datuk Aishah Ahmad said on Thursday this was based on subdued global and local economic forecast. MAA sees TIV falling from 666,674 in 2015 to 650,000 this year. — StarBiz

Hap Seng to launch 2 projects with GDV of RM1.9b: Hap Seng Consolidated Bhd will launch two projects in the Klang Valley this year with an estimated gross development value (GDV) of RM1.9 billion. The group will launch 598 units of high-end serviced apartments in Jalan Tun Razak in February with more than RM1 billion in GDV and a mixed development in Balakong in the second half of this year, said executive director Cheah Yee Leng. — Bernama

YFG gets restraining order against creditors: YFG Bhd has obtained 90 days grace against its creditors or liquidators until April 18 as it works out its scheme of arrangement. The electrical and mechanical engineering company said on Thursday that it and its subsidiaries YFG Trolka Sdn Bhd and YFG Engineering Sdn Bhd were granted the restraining order. — StarBiz

SCGM says tie-up with KTC will lift revenue: Leading thermo-vacuum formed plastic packaging manufacturer SCGM Bhd aims to increase revenue contribution from Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei to 15% over the next three years. — Bernama