The Marriott chain's joint venture with Alibaba would allow Chinese travellers to book rooms at Marriott hotels via Alibaba's travel service platform, Fliggy.
Energy
Brent crude was 0.63% lower to US$58.65 per barrel at 3.56pm.
Forex
Ringgit down 0.05% to 4.2067 versus the US dollar at 4.05pm.
Top foreign stories
Singapore banks shut accounts of some cryptocurrency firms: Singapore banks have closed accounts of several companies which specialise in providing cryptocurrency and payments services, according to Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Industry Association and Singapore Fintech Association, the two local bodies which represent financial-technology firms. — Bloomberg
Alibaba takes control of logistics business, pledges US$15b to expand network: Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group announced it will invest 100 billion yuan (US$15.12 billion) over five years to build a global logistics network and also take control of a US$20 billion unit, underpinning an aggressive overseas expansion. — Reuters
Nestle to unveil formal margin goal: Food giant Nestle on Tuesday said it will detail how it will reach its mid-single digit organic growth target by 2020, and will announce an underlying trading operating profit margin target of 17.5%-18.5% by 2020. — Reuters
Thai central bank seen holding key rate: Thailand’s central bank is expected to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged near record lows on Wednesday, shrugging off calls from the government and businesses for a cut to contain the strength of the baht. All but one of 22 economists in a Reuters poll predicted the BoT’s one-day repurchase rate will stay at 1.50% - where it has been since April 2015 - when its monetary policy committee meets on Sept 27. — Reuters
China’s iQiyi eyes US listing at up to US$10b valuation: Baidu Inc’s video streaming service iQiyi, a Chinese-style Netflix, is looking for an initial public offering in the United States as early as next year, which could value it at more than US$8 billion, a Bloomberg report says. — Reuters
Top local stories
HK and Malaysia are biggest Asian growth surprises, says ADB: Hong Kong and Malaysia are proving to be the biggest growth surprises in Asia. The two countries received the largest upgrades for this year among major economies in the Asian Development Bank’s latest outlook, while India received the steepest downgrade. — Bloomberg
PRG subsidiary gets in-principle approval for HK listing: PRG Holdings Bhd has received an in-principle approval from the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong for the planned listing of its manufacturing business on the growth enterprise market. — StarBiz
Honeywell gets KLIA ground lighting and monitoring system job: US-based Honeywell Home and Building Technologies has secured a multi-million dollar, multi-year project from Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd to upgrade the airfield ground lighting control and monitoring system at the KL International Airport. — StarBiz
Rubber and rubber product exports to hit RM20b target: The Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry expects rubber and rubber product exports to hit this year’s RM20 billion target due to buying support mainly from the US, Europe, China and India. — Bernama
BMI Research: Ringgit to continue to strengthen against US dollar: Fitch Group unit BMI Research expects the ringgit to average RM4.25 against the US dollar in 2017 and RM4.15 in 2018. It noted that the currency has strengthened by 9.3% year-on-year since January. — StarBiz
Lotte Chemical sees minimal losses from fire at plant: Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Bhd
said the damage caused by fire at its plant in Pasir Gudang, Johor, was minimal and the estimated losses was not more than RM50,000. — StarBiz
Limited time offer:
Just RM5 per month.
