Top foreign and local stories at 4pm

Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah was appointed chairman of TRX City Sdn Bhd and Bandar Malaysia Sdn Bhd

Energy

Brent crude was up 0.07% to US$54.93 per barrel at 3.40pm.

Forex

Ringgit up 0.17% to 4.4037 versus the US dollar at 3.47pm.

Top foreign stories

Thailand’s Siam Commercial in exclusive talks with FWD for US$3b insurance sale: Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) has entered into exclusive talks with Hong Kong insurer FWD Group to sell its life insurance arm, which could raise US$3 billion for Thailand’s third-biggest lender, people with direct knowledge of the matter said. — Reuters

S. Korea’s ING Life banks on high dividends to help sell US$1.2b IPO: Private equity-owned ING Life Insurance Korea is banking on its hefty dividend payouts to draw investors to its planned initial public offering (IPO) that could raise as much as US$1.2 billion in one of South Korea’s bigger public floats. — Reuters

Australia, New Zealand back Trump on possible WTO action on Canada dairy: Australia and New Zealand dairy industry leaders said on Wednesday they would support moves by the United States to draw the World Trade Organisation into a trade dispute with Canada, after President Donald Trump said existing rules were unfair. — Reuters

Akzo unveils plan to separate chemicals arm, pay special dividend: Akzo Nobel, the Dutch paint maker struggling to avoid a 24.6 billion euro (US$26 billion) takeover by US rival PPG Industries Inc, on Wednesday outlined a plan to instead separate its chemicals arm and pay shareholders 1.6 billion euros in extra dividends. The company said it would sell or list the division within 12 months. — Reuters

China expands bad loan securitisation scheme to include more banks: China is set to allow some mid-sized banks to issue asset-backed securities (ABS) with bad loans as underlying assets this year, providing them with a new channel to offload troubled debt, the official Shanghai Securities News reported on Wednesday. — Reuters

Indonesia seen on hold as it keeps tabs on inflation: Indonesia’s central bank is expected to keep its key interest rates unchanged on Thursday, as authorities stay on guard over rising inflationary pressures and the risk of capital outflows. All 15 analysts in a Reuters poll predicted Bank Indonesia (BI) would keep the benchmark 7-day reverse repurchase rate unchanged at 4.75% for the sixth consecutive policy review. — Reuters

Top local stories

Digital economy could add more than 20% to Malaysia’s GDP before 2020: The contribution of the digital economy to Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP), at about 17% currently, is expected to exceed the projected target of 20% earlier than 2020, Treasury Secretary-General Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah said after officiating the Malaysia Digital Hub and Malaysia Tech Entrepreneur Programme in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday. — Bernama

Hays: Malaysia’s banking sector on recruitment spree: The need to comply with a raft of new regulations is a key driver shaping hiring trends in the Malaysian banking and financial services this quarter, according to recruitment experts Hays. The latest Hays Quarterly Report reveals recruitment by banks and financial institutions is also being influenced by new revenue initiatives and trends such as a greater reliance on data and analytics. — StarBiz

Rehda: Pick-up in H2 2016 property sales: A survey of the Real Estate and Housing Developers Association (Rehda) members shows a total of 13,276 property units were launched nationwide in the second half 2016, compared with 7,172 units in the first half. Sales increased to 5,973 units in the second half compared with 2,829 units in the first six months of 2016. Rehda president Datuk Seri FD Iskandar said nearly half of the residential units launched were priced below RM500,000. — StarBiz

Inflation up 5.1% on-year in March, a 8-year high: Malaysia’s consumer price index (CPI), a broad measure of inflation, jumped 5.1% in March on-year, the highest in eight years due to the low base last year and higher retail fuel prices compared to a year earlier. The Statistics Department said core inflation remained stable at 2.5%. — StarBiz

Eco World inks MoUs with Brainy Bunch International Islamic Montessori: Eco World Development Group Bhd has signed two memorandums of understanding (MoU) with Brainy Bunch International Islamic Montessori for the purchase of land in Eco Grandeur, Shah Alam, and Eco Tropics, Iskandar Malaysia. Under the agreement, Brainy Bunch will develop and operate an international school campus in Eco Grandeur and a Montessori kindergarten campus in Eco Tropics. — Bernama

PetDag: No impact on earnings from weekly fuel pricing: The weekly fuel price mechanism will not have any impact on Petronas Dagangan Bhd’s (PetDag) earnings. “It is not a new mechanism that is going to give us more money,” said chairman Mohamad Arif Mahmood after the company’s AGM on Wednesday. — StarBiz