Malaysia's Banks Performing and Unaffected by Eurozone Crisis

The recent heavy sell down on the Malaysia stock market and causing the FBM KLCI to tumbles in the past 2 weeks are already picking up. 

Firstly, the main cause is the Eurozone debt crisis which involve Greece, Spain and Portugal, but up to date the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union (EU) had already bailout them by providing loans. 

Secondly, it was the huge quarter losses of plantation conglomerate Sime Darby. Up to now, Sime Darby share price had already slump down 12% in 2 weeks. The CEO of Sime Darby had also been removed. 

Thirdly,  as we know if the manufacturing sector is suffering a meltdown in demand from Europe, then this will indirectly affect the banks lending prospects, and this was not the problem, as the manufacturing sector in Malaysia is on a pick up trend. Furthermore, Malaysian banks also have no exposure to any of Europe’s papers or business interest.

Although interest rate hikes totalling 75 basis points in 2010, but those bankers are still confident on the loan growth and will be stronger than previous year. If not the Bank Negara will not raise the interest rates. And the inflation are not in pressure.

Thus, Malaysia Banks are fundamentally good and performing and are not in a worrying trend.

European Union and International Monetary Fund pledged US$1 trillion defend Euro

The European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pledged roughly US$1 trillion on Monday to defend the falling euro, to prevent the common currency from devalued and collapse.

Most Central banks around the world joined the coordinated effort to prevent Europe's debt crisis from derailing the global economic recovery.

The initiative was under the three-year plan, the European Commission (EU's governing body) will make Euros 60 billion ($75 billion) available while countries from the 16-nation eurozone would promise backing for Euros 440 billion ($570 billion).

Furthermore, the IMF would contribute an additional sum of at least half of the EU's total contribution, or Euros 250 billion.

EU Commissioner Olli Rehn says they will defend the Euro whatever it takes and necessary to be after meeting with those EU's Ministers.

Dow Jones Slump as Eurozone: Greece Debt Crisis Worsen

Dow Jones gone into deep shit as affected by Greece Debts Crisis. Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down over 200 points on Tuesday as concerns about a eurozone debt crisis prompted heavy losses in the financial sector. The Dow fell 213.04 points or 1.9% to closed below the level of 11,000 and ended the day at 10,991.99, suffering its WORST DECLINE since Feb.4, 2010. The Nasdaq composite drop 2.04% and the Standard & Poor 500 index skidded 2.34%.

The Eurozone countries that facing debts problem are Greece, Spain and Portugal. Spain, which is trying to emerge from a steep recession following a housing bubble, is running a 11.2% budget deficit. That compares to Portugal's 9.4% deficit and Greece's 13.6% deficit.

Europe's act in respond had led investors selling off Greek debt, and causing Greece more expensive to borrow money, and negative images. And the worry now is that this process will be repeated in Portugal.

Furthermore, the €45 billion aid package for Greece from the EU and the International Monetary Fund could be delayed by political in-fighting in Germany, which Germany is to provide about €8.4 billion of the EU's €30 billion in rescue loans. As the opposition in Germany is criticizing the rescue plan and opposing Chancellor Angela Merkel's commitment to come to Greece's rescue. This was mainly due to the Propoganda by the political party because Germany was in the midst of a campaign for a crucial regional election set for May 9 that could influence the balance of power in Germany's national parliament.

All this problems had pro-long and pissed-off investors to sell and causing the market to panic and facing heavy selling pressure.

In this case, the stocks that pull Dow Jones down are mainly financial stocks such as Citigroup, Bank of America and others. Chances are on Citi, buy when it deeps. Hehe.

  

European Airport Closures : SIA loss millions per day

Most European airports were shut down due to the huge amounts of ash and smoke emanating from volcano in Iceland’s . The ash, which is moving slowly toward mainland Europe, poses a threat to aviation safety. This eruption started on April 14, and had caused the world’s largest aviation disruption since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States Thousands of flights across portions of Europe were canceled. This eruption had pro-long until today. SIA (Singapore Airline Ltd) reported that it has been losing at least S$4 million per day since Thursday as a result of airport closures in Europe because of the volcanic eruption in Iceland. As SIA needs to cover accommodation costs for stranded passengers and exclude cancelled flights, if cancelled flight were included, it could be even higher. SIA operates 25 flights to and from Europe daily with more than 20 being cancelled since last April 15.SIA carrier makes around 25% of its revenue from flights to Europe. It flies the Airbus A380 super jumbo to hubs like London, Zurich and Paris, which were all affected by the volcanic ash cloud.