Green titan?: Tesla and SolarCity would form a one-stop clean energy shop.
Energy
Brent crude was 0.75% higher to US$47.21 per barrel at 3.37pm.
Forex
Ringgit up 0.22% to 4.1778 versus the US dollar at 3.46pm.
Top foreign stories
Alibaba sales growth soars into the cloud: Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s sales soared 55% in the last quarter, thanks in part to a more than doubling of revenue from cloud computing, the company said. The year-on-year growth in group sales, to 34.29bil yuan (RM21.19bil), was not matched by net profit, which slid 66% to 7.62bil yuan (RM4.70bil). — AFP
Indonesia Q3 economic growth seen slowing on govt spending cut: Indonesia’s economic growth is expected to have cooled in the third quarter as South-East Asia’s largest economy struggles to mount a strong rebound, let alone reach President Joko Widodo’s ambitious 7% growth pledge.
US commerce chief warns against China semiconductor investment binge: Massive government investment in China’s semiconductor industry risks distorting the global market for integrated circuits, leading to damaging overcapacity and stifling innovation, US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker has warned. She sharply criticised a US$150 billion plan by the Chinese government to expand the share of Chinese-made integrated circuits in the domestic market to 70% by 2025, from 9% now. — Reuters
China services sector grows at fastest pace in 4 months in Oct: China’s services sector grew at the strongest pace in four months in October as new business picked up, encouraging companies to hire more workers, a private survey showed. The findings, along with upbeat official factory and services readings earlier this week, add to the view that the world’s second-largest economy is on a steadier footing. — Reuters
Tesla obliged to pay US$1.7b to Panasonic for gigafactory cells: Tesla Motors Inc had an obligation to pay a total of about US$1.7bil (RM7.10bil) to Japan’s Panasonic Corp as of Sept 30 for electric vehicle battery cells made at Tesla’s gigafactory in Nevada, the carmaker said in a regulatory filing. — Reuters
Top local stories
Fraser & Neave FY16 earnings up nearly 38% to RM385m: Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd
’s earnings rose 37.6% to RM385.37mil in the financial year ended Sept 30, 2016, underpinned by favourable product mix, commodity price gains and manufacturing efficiencies as well as a boost from its Thai operations. Fevenue increased 1.4% to RM4.16bil despite the absence of agency products teminated in October 2015. It declared a dividend of 30.5 sen a share. — StarBiz
Unisem Q3 earnings steady at nearly RM39m: Unisem (M) Bhd’s earnings fell 3.9% to RM38.63mil in the third quarter on a lower revenue of RM321.95mil from RM329.61mil a year earlier. The semiconductor-related company expects its performance to remain satisfactory till the end of its current financial year. It declared an interim dividend of 3.5 sen compared with three sen a year ago. — StarBiz
SC unveils six P2P financing platform operators for SMEs: The Securities Commission (SC) has introduced six registered Peer-to-Peer (P2P) financing platform operators in Malaysia to widen funding avenues for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The six — B2B FinPAL, Kapital, FundedByMe Malaysia, Managepay Services, Modalku Ventures and Peoplender — are expected to be fully operational in 2017, said SC chairman Tan Sri Ranjit Ajit Singh. — Bernama
XOX to issue 250m new shares to Macquarie Bank to finance Voopee expansion: Mobile telecommunications products and services provider, XOX Bhd has proposed to issue 250 million new shares to Macquarie Bank Ltd to finance the expansion of its Voopee mobile application. — StarBiz
SC approves Affin’s sale of investment bank stake to Daiwa: The Securities Commission (SC) has approved a proposal by Affin Holdings Bhd to dispose of a minority stake in Affin Hwang Investment Bank Bhd to Japan’s Daiwa Securities Group Inc. “Affin and Daiwa Securities will review and deliberate on the terms of SC’s approval,” it said. — StarBiz
Local shipping industry to see greater consolidation: The domestic shipping industry is expected to see greater consolidation among companies amid slower economic growth, and as a step towards optimising assets as well as reducing operating costs, says Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport Council member Abi Sofian Abdul Hamid. — Bernama
Hong Leong Bank unveils auto loan platform: Hong Leong Bank Bhd (HLB) on Thursday formally launched its auto loan application platform called Loan2Go. This makes HLB the first bank in Malaysia to roll out an off-site straight through processing mobile auto loan application platform on tablets for its sales force. — Bernama
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