PRESS DIGEST - Malaysia - May 25
Following are the main stories in Malaysian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
THE STAR (www.thestar.com.my)
-- It's back. Title-obsessed Malaysians are again falling for offers of titles and awards from an unrecognised - and very likely fictitious - sultanate in Mindanao in the Philippines.
-- It will be difficult for newly set-up international crude palm oil (CPO) contracts to rival Bursa Malaysia Bhd's (BMYS.KL) CPO futures contract, which is the global benchmark pricing for CPO and its related products, market players said.
-- Local long steel makers are likely to benefit from the export markets, particularly within Southeast Asia, as China maintains its higher export taxes to meet local consumption, OSK Investment Bank said.
BUSINESS TIMES (www.btimes.com.my)
-- A privately-held company has beaten much bigger rivals to a multi-million-ringgit contract to build the Malaysian embassy building and residences in Islamabad, Pakistan, sources said.
-- i-VCAP Management Sdn Bhd plans to launch the second tranche of its MyETF Dow Jones Islamic Market Malaysia Titans 25 (MyETF-DJIM25), the world's largest syariah exchange traded fund, this year, i-VCAP chief executive officer Zainal Izlan Zainal Abidin said.
THE NEW STRAITS TIMES (www.nst.com.my)
-- The 1Malaysia concept should not be misused by anyone to make extreme or unreasonable demands on the government, Prime Minister Najib Razak said.
THE EDGE FINANCIAL DAILY (www.theedgemalaysia.com)
-- About 30 percent of the 42 billion ringgit ($12.04 billion) committed to the Iskandar Malaysia project as at end-2008 is alrady on the ground being spent, recently appointed Iskandar Regional Development Authority chief executive Harun Johari said.
THE MALAYSIAN RESERVE (www.themalaysianreserve.com)
-- BNP Paribas Asset Management Asia Ltd is working with a few takaful companies and banks in the country to launch several exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the local bourse, said its head of Structured, Indexed and Generation of Multi-Alpha Asia under BNP Paribas's Asia Pacific asset management group, Bruno Lebeda.
THE SUN (www.sun2surf.com)
-- To call an emergency sitting of the Perak state assembly is an option to end the impasse between the Barisan Nasional (National Front) and Pakatan Rakyat (People's Alliance) but it is not the only option to determine which party enjoys the House's majority, Prime Minister Najib Razak said.
-- Share prices on Bursa Malaysia are expected to see a slight uptrend this week as investors set aside concerns on negative fundamentals, analysts said. ($1=3.527 Malaysian Ringgit)
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