Malaysia News Highlights : 28th August 15

• Malaysian share prices opened higher today track global equities' rise and crude oil's 10% gain in anticipation of later-than-expected US interest rate hikes and that China's rate cut will support the major economy.
  The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite rose 21.33 points or 1.35% to 1,609.04.
   
• The ringgit's strength correlates with prices of crude oil, which forms a crucial portion of the Malaysian economy and government revenue.
  The ringgit strengthened to 4.23 against the US dollar and compared to the Singapore dollar, the ringgit changed hands at 3.02.
   
• Foreign selling of Malaysian equities eased on Thursday with net selling dwindling to a low of –RM9mil on Thursday as the FBM KLCI on its third day of gains.
   
• Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank), which only managed a marginal 0.6% growth in net profit for the second quarter ended June 30, 2015, has revised its headline key performance indicators for financial year 2015 (FY15) in line with what it sees is a challenging economic outlook.
   
• DRB-Hicom Bhd saw a net loss of RM19.72 million for the first quarter ended June 30, 2015 compared with a net profit of RM107.84 million a year ago, mainly due to lower sales of motor vehicles by the automotive companies following initial impact post the Goods and Services Tax implementation.
   
• Sunway Bhd up 30% growth on its net profit for its second financial quarter ended June 30, 2015 (2QFY15) to RM237.91 million or 13.54 sen a share, from RM182.53 million or 10.59 sen a share.
   
• Education group SMRT Holdings Bhd recorded a net loss of RM2.33 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2015 from a net profit of RM2.65 million a year ago, mainly due to a RM1.4 million share of loss from associate, higher finance costs as a result of acquisition and lower revenue generated from the technology segment.