| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
advertisement | ||
Wednesday March 21, 8:29 AMMalaysia Hot Stocks-Market seen firm, Proton in focusKUALA LUMPUR, March 21 (Reuters) - Malaysian shares are expected to rise on Wednesday on expected fresh foreign demand after the prime minister said he wanted a stronger ringgit currency, dealers said.Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told Reuters and CNBC in an interview late on Tuesday that he welcomed a strong ringgit as a vote of investor confidence. "I think we would like to see the ringgit become stronger," said Abdullah, who is also the Finance Minister. He was responding to a question about speculation that Malaysia might allow the ringgit to be traded offshore. A dealer said the premier' comments on state-controlled car-maker Proton in the same interview was seen as bullish for the loss-making company. "Both news are going to keep the market's upward momentum going for today," said a dealer at a local investment bank. "The foreign hedge funds are slowly coming back." Abdullah told Reuters and CNBC that Proton was talking only to German carmaker Volkswagen AG . He said a decision on the Proton stake sale was unlikely this week, although Malaysia was still aiming for an end-March deadline. The benchmark Kuala Lumpur Composite Index ended Tuesday up 1.1 percent at a one-week high of 1,205.28 points, lifted by casino and leisure group Genting after the company said it planned to sell its paper unit. U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday, boosted by a series of takeover deals, including a $5.9 billion buyout bid for Affiliated Computer Services Inc. . The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.51 percent to 12,288.10 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite gained 0.58 percent to 2,408.21. |
|||
|
Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of Reuters Limited
|