14 theSun | WEDNESDAY APRIL 22 2009

KLCI 966.60 1.77 Nikkei 8,711.33 213.24

business STI 1,887.25 12.40 TSEC 5,881.41 99.75
Hang Seng 15,285.89 465.02 KOSPI 1,336.81 0.34
SCI 2,535.83 21.63 S&P/ASX200 3,677.40 91.60

KL market summary
Prices lower on profit-taking APRIL 21, 2009
INDICES CHANGE
SHARE prices on Bursa Ma- ing the day. Group was unchanged at 54.5
laysia closed lower yesterday The benchmar KLCI rose sen, Talam added one sen to FBMEMAS 6,364.53 -19.00
COMPOSIT 966.60 -1.77
on mild profit-taking activities 1.77 points to 966.60 after 6.5 sen and Axiata-OR and
INDUSTRIAL 2,232.40 -5.94
involving select heavyweights opening 9.07 points lower at PDZ Holdings gained half sen CONSUMER PROD 298.64 +0.39
amid a lack of positive leads 959.30 in the morning. each to 69.5 sen and 11.5 sen INDUSTRIAL PROD 72.23 -0.18
following the decline on Wall Decliners led advancers by respectively. Another active, CONSTRUCTION 186.22 +1.10
Street overnight, dealers said. 306 to 251 while 191 counters UEM Land, advanced 2.5 sen TRADING SERVICES 129.77 -0.21
However, shares of national were unchanged, 495 untraded to close at 98 sen. FINANCE 7,327.03 -42.92
carmaker Proton Holdings Bhd and 36 others suspended. Of the heavyweights, Sime PROPERTIES 585.67 +0.87
PLANTATIONS 4,915.82 -17.27
bucked the trend following “There was late bargain- Darby dropped five sen to MINING 267.49 UNCH
talks that it would divest its hunting on select heavyweights RM6.40, Tenaga Nasional went FBMSHA 6,674.74 -10.54
distribution arm Proton Edar that helped to erase some of down 10 sen to RM7.10 and FBM2BRD 4,067.48 -23.81
Sdn Bhd to Edaran Otomobil the earlier losses and thus Maybank was flat at RM4.30. TECHNOLOGY 12.34 +0.07
Nasional Bhd (EON). pushed the key index to close Bumiputra-Commerce de-
The Proton stock ended marginally lower,” one of the clined 10 sen to RM7.90 while TURNOVER VALUE
13 sen higher at RM3.12 after dealers said. IOI Corp was two sen lower at 1.069bil RM959.849mil
trading as high as RM3.20 dur- Among the actives, KNM RM4.26. – Bernama

briefs
Q1 vehicle sales down 9%
KUALA LUMPUR: Vehicle sales for the January-
March 2009 period declined by 9.2% to 118,681 units
from 130,774 units in the same period last year.
However, the February-March 2009 sales
volume was up by 20.5% or 7,530 units compared
to the same period last year, the Malaysian Auto-
motive Association (MAA) said yesterday.
New models and higher sales of light com-
mercial vehicles were the main reason for the
increase, the association said in a statement.
Passenger vehicle sales last month stood at
39,989 units, lower than the 42,547 units recorded
in the same month last year, but commercial
vehicle sales rose to 4,216 units from 3,889 units
previously. – Bernama
‘No plan to divest Proton Edar’
KUALA LUMPUR: Proton Holdings Bhd
yesterday clarified it has no plan to divest
its distribution arm Proton Edar Sdn Bhd to
Edaran Otomobil Nasional Bhd (EON) in return
for a stake in the latter.
The national car maker said in a statement
it is in discussion with EON on rationalisation
of the Proton sales and service network.
Proton and EON signed a memorandum
of understanding (MoU) to begin discussion
in April 25.
The MoU, however, has since been
extended to May 2.
The company said it would be making the
necessary announcement on the network
rationalisation in due course.
Share price of Proton gained 13 sen to
close at RM3.12 yesterday. – Bernama
Property market to
see moderate growth
KUALA LUMPUR: The property market in
Malaysia is expected to moderate this year
with prices and rentals correcting and con-
struction activities easing slightly in line with
the current economic slowdown.
The director-general of the Finance
Ministry’s Valuation and Property Services
Department, Datuk Abdullah Thalith Md
Thani, said the prices and rentals, however,
are unlikely to plunge in the coming years,
although there are some sort of pressure in
the first quarter of this year.
“The most vulnerable sub-sector will be
the high-end residential market as well as
industrial property, which is already experi-
encing a slowdown.
“Perhaps the stimulus packages and the
implementation of projects in the Ninth
Malaysia Plan will help cushion the impact
of global economic crisis,” he told a media
briefing after the launch of the Property
Market Report by Deputy Finance Minister
Datuk Wira Chor Chee Heung yesterday.
In his speech, Chor said the impact of the
stimulus packages has started to “kick in”,
which would stimulate the domestic demand
and activate the housing market as well.
“We don’t foresee any bubble in the
property sector as the government has
also come in to help stabilise the prices of
houses,” he said.
He said the government has always been
concerned about housing and home owner-
ship, especially among the lower income
group.
Chor said the commercial sub-sector has
shown an improvement in overall unsold
position, with shops overhang declining by
almost 4%.
“For the industrial sub-sector, however,
the news is not so good. The overall unsold
position has deteriorated by 30%, with num-
bers breaching 2,000 units.
“Johor and Selangor contributed the
highest number of overhang and unsold
residential units in the country,” he said.
According to the Property Market Report,
the market recorded 340,240 transactions
valued at RM88.34 billion last year.
It said the transaction volume recorded
9.9% increase (2007: 309,455 transactions)
while value grew by 14.5% (2007: RM77.14
billion).
The residential property sub-sector
remained as the most dominant sub-sector
comprising 63.7% of the total volume and
46.8% of total value of transactions, it said.
The report said agriculture prop-
erty came second forming 20.3% of the total
transactions, followed by the commercial
property at 9.3%, development land at 4.3%
and industrial property at 2.4%.
It said generally, the average price of all
property sub-sector was on the uptrend.
“Last year, the primary market did not
perform as well as in 2007 as only 21,725
units taken out of the 48,830 new units
offered for sale.
“In tandem with the dismal perform-
ance of the primary market, the number of
residential overhang increased by 9.1% to
26,029 in 2008,” it said.
On the supply side, the development of
residential property was cautious with dwin-
dling numbers in new building plan approval
and project completion, it said. – Bernama

Europlus eyes RM3bil jobs

from highway project
KUALA LUMPUR: Kumpulan Europlus Bhd (KEB)
expects projects worth RM3 billion from the
proposed West Coast Highway.
Executive director Loy Boon Chen said the
company is awaiting the government’s con-
firmation on the commencement date of the
highway concession.
“If the highway project materialises, it will
boost the company’s overall revenue,” Loy said
after KEB’s extraordinary general meeting (EGM)
yesterday. “I think the government will proceed
with the project as this highway is needed to
pump-prime the economy.”
The highway links Taiping to Banting and the
KL International Airport.
Loy said KEB also expects RM80 million in
projects from Talam Corporation Berhad. KEB
holds a 42% stake in the property investment
and holding company.
Meanwhile, Talam executive director Chua Kim
Lan said Talam is targeting to complete its regu-
larisation plan by next month, for the company to
have its Practice Note 17 status removed.
Chua said after completing the regularisation
plan, the debt level of Talam will be reduced
from RM3 billion to RM300 million.
Talam will not be launching any new projects
at the moment as it is focusing on completing
property sold in Selangor.
“A majority of the projects in Selangor will be
completed this year and the remaining portion
in 2010,” she said after Talam’s EGM yesterday.
According to Chua, Talam has a landbank
of about 4,000 to 5,000 acres, the majority of
which is in Selangor.
Chua also disclosed that Talam had plans to
dispose its non-core assets to streamline the
company.
“We plan to dispose investment properties
and land within Selangor with a cash value of
between RM200 and RM300 million. Previously,
we sold about RM150 million in non-core as-
sets,” she said.
Talam also has a property project in China,
undertaken as a joint venture with IJM Construc-
tion. – Bernama