Energy
Brent Crude was 0.11% higher to US$44.23 per barrel at 1.52pm.
Forex
Ringgit up 1.51% to 4.2770 versus the US dollar at 2.20pm.
Top foreign stories
ABN Amro eyes record-breaking return to Dutch bourse: Dutch bank ABN Amro, nationalised after a 2008 bailout, bounces back onto the stock market on Friday in what is being billed as one of the biggest IPOs by a European lender since the financial crisis. ABN Amro said it would offer 20% of its capital to investors in a first tranche, hoping to raise 3.38 billion euros (US$3.62 billion). — AFP
US Treasury ramps up war on tax-evading mergers: The US Treasury announced new measures on Thursday to block “inversion” mergers designed to let companies avoid US taxes, placing a possible obstacle to Pfizer’s potential US$150 billion mega takeover of Ireland-based Allergan. — AFP
Indonesia will “push” for rupiah-yuan use in China trade and investment: Indonesia will push for the use of rupiah and yuan for its trade and investment with China, instead of the US dollar, the country’s central bank governor said on Friday. — Reuters
SGX challenges old obstacles with new bond trading system: Singapore Exchange Ltd (SGX)’s new corporate bond trading platform is expected to travel a difficult road, with some traders fearing that long-standing problems in Asia’s debt market will see the bourse struggle to make headway just like others before it. — Reuters
BoJ to publish new indicators showing prices rising: The Bank of Japan (BoJ) will release a new set of price indicators this month that reconfigures the way price trends are measured as the central bank seeks to show the country’s below-target inflation rate is due to volatile items such as energy. — Reuters
Drop in investments India’s top concern: India’s central bank chief Raghuram Rajan said Asia’s third-largest economy is being hampered by a drop in public and private investments, but held out hope that strong foreign capital flows will help rectify this weakness. — Reuters
Mrs Watanabe returns to India seeking emerging market yield: Just two years after India’s policymakers stared down a major capital flight threat, the country has become a hot emerging market investment destination for one of the world’s most robust sources of capital – Japanese households. — Reuters
Volkswagen keeps low profile at US auto show amid scandal: German car giant Volkswagen, tainted by an emissions scandal, is keeping a low profile as it attends a major auto show in the United States and prepares to meet with regulators. — AFP
Top local stories
October inflation holds steady at 2.5%: Malaysia’s inflation rate in October was steady against September, at 2.5% from a year earlier, due to a rise in prices of consumer goods. The consumer price index (CPI) in October was slightly lower than 2.6% forecast in a Reuters poll. It said on a monthly basis, the CPI for October increased 0.4%. — StarBiz
Bumi Armada
posts RM70m Q3 earnings: Bumi Armada Bhd posted earnings of RM69.99mil in the third quarter but for the nine-month period it posted net losses of RM149.48mil due to non-cash impairment charge that was taken in the second quarter. Revenue fell to RM559.46mil from RM636.51mil. Earnings per share were 1.19 sen compared with 2.29 sen. — StarBiz
Fitch: Malaysian mobile sector hit by competition, weak consumer spending: Fitch Ratings foresees competition in the Malaysia’s mobile sector persisting amid weak consumer spending and the entry of incumbent fixed operator, Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM, A-/Stable), into the 4G market. It said in a special report on Friday it expected competition in the fixed-line and fibre broadband segments to remain moderate. — StarBiz
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