MARKET PULSE AM JUNE 30, 2025 [WATCH]
KUALA LUMPUR: News on stock, crypto and ringgit moves.
Sarawak Consolidated Industries was the most active stock in early trade after proposing a rights issue with free detachable warrants and a capital reduction to boost its capital base.
The stock fell 3 sen to 12 sen, with 3 million shares traded.
Bursa Malaysia opened higher on Monday, taking cues from Wall Street's upbeat performance driven by optimism over US-China trade discussions.
The benchmark index is anticipated to move within the 1,530 to 1,540 range today.
In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin is climbing to around RM458,296, while Ethereum is also trending upward to approximately RM10,587.
In contrast, Solana has slipped to about RM640.
That's it for Market Pulse.
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The Star
30 minutes ago
- The Star
UMS to expand reach via Bursa secondary listing
An SGX sign at the Singapore Stock Exchange. — Reuters KUALA LUMPUR: Slated to be listed on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia on Aug 1, high-precision engineering and manufacturing company UMS Integration Ltd – currently listed on the Mainboard of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) – says it will continue to expand its role within the semiconductor and aerospace value chains. Chief executive officer Andy Luong said the Singapore-headquartered company's impending secondary listing will enhance the group's visibility across the South-East Asian region and boost its position as an integrated service provider for global chip companies. 'Within the semiconductor space, we see opportunities in manufacturing high-precision components used in advanced packaging solutions, which play a vital role in enabling next-generation artificial intelligence and high-performance computing applications,' he said at a press briefing here yesterday. Given current global trade tensions, Luong added that Malaysia and Singapore are well-positioned to benefit from various outsourcing opportunities. 'We have the resources to serve the people as well, ' he said. Executive director, group financial controller and senior vice-president of operations Stanley Loh Meng Chong said Malaysia is a suitable place for the company's secondary listing due to several factors, including its plant located in Penang. He said UMS had pursued a dual listing in South Korea in 2010, but the plan fell through after the stock exchange regulators clamped down on overseas secondary listings following a fraud case involving a Chinese company. Loh added that Malaysia 'is a better place to raise funds and grow the business.' He believes that UMS is better run compared to its Malaysian peers, with stronger profit margins and dividend yields. 'In Singapore, typically our valuations are lower. We hope that by coming to Malaysia, it will help us to be valued more fairly versus our peers,' Loh said. UMS yesterday issued its prospectus for the secondary listing, which will be undertaken by way of introduction and will not involve any issuance or offering of shares. UMS shares will be fully fungible, meaning shareholders can transfer their shares between the SGX Mainboard and Bursa Malaysia's Main Market for trading. TA Securities Holdings Bhd is the principal adviser, while CGS International Securities Malaysia is the financial adviser for the exercise. At last look, UMS's market capitalisation was approximately S$945mil (equivalent to about RM3.13bil). It recorded revenue of S$242.1mil for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2024, while profit after tax stood at S$40.6mil, translating into a margin of 16.8%.


The Star
30 minutes ago
- The Star
Shell may still need M&A after ruling out buying BP
Oil drums containing lubricant oil sit on a conveyor belt at a Royal Dutch Shell lubricants blending plant in Europe. — Bloomberg BRITISH oil and gas giant Shell Plc has quashed a rumour: It's not buying BP Plc. But last week's forceful denial doesn't address why the merger and acquisition (M&A) chatter gained so much traction, which has less to do with the parlous state of BP than with Shell itself. Looking to 2030 and beyond, it does feel like Shell needs to buy something or someone. Since his January 2023 appointment as chief executive officer, Wael Sawan has done a decent job steadying Shell. Spending and debt are down, unprofitable green projects are gone and cash generation is improving. That's all well and good; but viewing such business basics as evidence of success just shows how the wheels had fallen off before his arrival. What's still missing is any sense of a vision to sustain oil and gas production beyond the next five years. To achieve that, sooner or later Shell will need to make acquisitions; it could be a series of projects, or it could be a rival. If that's the case, the best time to pull the trigger could come soon as the plunge in oil prices creates industry-wide distress, creating opportunities. Admittedly, the 'show-us-your-2030-plan' demand is a bit premature – and even a little unfair. Sawan has plenty on his plate from 2025 to 2027 before turning his attention to the next decade. Shell is trying its best to keep the focus on the task at hand now, telling investors that its priority is 'performance, discipline and simplification.' To the company's credit, its narrative is working. Year-to-date, Shell has beaten its Big Oil rivals, with shares up 4%. Exxon Mobil Corp is up by about half of that, Chevron Corp is about flat, while TotalEnergies SE and BP are both down. Crucially, Sawan has turned the page on Shell's tendency for nasty earnings surprises every few quarters. It's almost as if the company had gone back to the years of 'You can be sure of Shell' – one of the advertising industry's best-known taglines. Still, the company's own forecasts, last updated at its March capital markets day, make it clear that fossil-fuel production will decline in the early 2030s. Sawan's options That leaves Sawan with four options: do nothing and let output fall, perhaps betting that oil demand peaks in the early 2030s; use organic opportunities to squeeze out a few extra barrels; make a few bolt-on purchases in the sub-US$10bil range, beefing up the hopper for a few years; or go big with a major acquisition, in the US$50bil-plus range. Filling the production drop from 2030 to 2035, probably in the range of 200,000 to 300,000 barrels per day – or about 10% of its total – is possible without acquisitions. Key projects The company has been expanding its working interest in some of its key projects, effectively buying more barrels with relatively little incremental capital. Only this year, it upped its ownership in the Ursa project in the Gulf of Mexico to 61% from 45% for US$735mil, and in the Bonga field in Nigeria to 67.5% from 55% for US$510mil. More of the same can be a cheap way to boost output, and Shell has a US$1bil to US$2bil wiggle room for such opportunities within its current annual US$20bil to US$22bil capital spending target range. If similar transactions aren't enough, Shell may pursue smaller deals. Is there a case for larger deals? Perhaps. Still possible I believe that a Shell-BP merger is still possible, but it has a much better chance of happening if BP, admitting it's in a corner, makes the first move and the deal becomes a merger at a nil premium. I don't see Shell paying a takeover premium; Sawan has other options for a big transaction. — Bloomberg Javier Blas is a Bloomberg opinion columnist. The views expressed here are the writer's own.


The Star
30 minutes ago
- The Star
Bursa Malaysia maintains rally as progress seen in US tariffs negotiations
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia made another positive start on Tuesday as the rally in global markets continued amid signs of easing tensions in US President Donald Trump's trade war. The benchmark FBM KLCI rose 1.03 points to 1,533.99, continuing its ascend for the fourth straight session. Overnight, Wall Street stocks ended higher amid progress between the US and its trading partners ahead of the end of the 90-day tariff reprieve next week. Malacca Securities said it maintains a positive stance on the construction and utility sectors, given the foreign inflows into the data centres segment. "Also, we note that with Tenaga's CapEx extending into 2H25, we believe it will benefit power infrastructure specialist as well as cable manufacturers going forward. "For a defensive approach, we believe REIT will be favourable to outperform, in view of the sector's average dividend yield, which stands at 4-5%," it said in its market commentary. Among the blue chips, Nestle rose 56 sen to RM77.27, Tenaga Nasional gained 10 sen to RM14.48 and PPB climbed eight sen to RM10.36. Of actives, NexG rose 0.5 sen to 37.5 sen, SFP Tech was flat at 20 sen and Magma was unchanged at 49 sen.