The inflow of foreign funds into Bursa Malaysia last week remained sizeable as foreign investors bought, on a net basis, RM308m (US$99.1m) worth of Malaysian stocks for the seventh consecutive week. For the year until 3 Aug the cumulative net inflow of foreign funds into Malaysian equities amounted to RM9.5bn (US$3.06bn). It was much higher compared with only RM1.9bn (US$611.46m) registered for the entire 2011, Malaysian Industrial Development Finance (MIDF) Research said. Meanwhile, local retailers continued to be net sellers for the tenth consecutive week with sales declining to RM62m (US$19.95m), the lowest in seven weeks. The report revealed that the participation rate also dropped significantly to RM747m (US$240.39m). (Bernama)
Malaysia’s participation at the recent SEMICON West 2012 in San Francisco, California, generated sales of RM333.78m against sales of RM22m chalked up at the same event last year. The Malaysia External Trade Development Corp (Matrade) said the event, held between 10 July and 12 July, was the flagship event for microelectronic manufacturing and semiconductor industries. Matrade said worldwide spending on semiconductor fabrication equipment this year was expected to amount to RM124.12bn and RM145.42bn next year, an all-time record high for fabrication equipment spending. (Bernama)
US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that although broad measurements of the economy like consumer spending, disposable income, ousehold net worth and debt service payments point to recovery, many people and businesses are facing tough times. (Reuters)
The US Federal Reserve said banks continued to ease lending standards for larger firms in the last three months but small businesses are still having a hard time accessing credit. (Reuters)
The IMF, facing discontent among its members about the huge sums it has lent to the euro zone, is pushing the currency bloc's governments to take steps to lighten the burden of the bailout loans they made to Athens, officials familiar with continuing discussions said. (WSJ)
Eurozone’s sentix investor confidence fell by 0.7pt to -30.3 in Aug (-29.6 in Jul), the fifth consecutive month of decline and the lowest in more than three years. Economists had forecast the index to fall to -31. The expectations index rose to -23.3 from -24 in July, whilst current conditions fell to -37 from -35. (RTTNews)
Japan’s coincident index fell a preliminary 2.0pts mom in Jun (-1.2pt in May), the third straight month of decline, whilst the leading index fell 2.6pts mom (-0.4pt in May). The Cabinet Office thus downgraded its view on the coincident index, saying it is stalling. That compared with its previous view that the index was showing an improvement. (Reuters)
India's new pro-market finance minister P. Chidambaram pledged to take steps to restore foreign investors' faith in Asia's third-largest economy and "restart the growth engine". (AFP)
Indonesia’s GDP growth last quarter was 6.4% yoy against 6.3% in the first quarter, helped by domestic consumption and investment. GDP grew by 2.8% qoq (1.4% in 1Q12). (Reuters, Bloomberg)
Indonesia’s consumer confidence index inched lower to 113.5 in Jul from 114.4 in Jun. (Bloomberg)
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