Peggy NutGives Amore on a Tuesday!

From the Business Times-NST,
December 20 2005, page B5:

Tis the Season to be Jolly, hence some Santa-sy news break,

Blue-chips may see Christmas rally


DOMESTIC funds scrambling for cheap blue-chip stocks to dress up their portfolios promise to bring some Christmas glitter to the benchmark index, Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI), investors said.

High oil prices, foreign competition and rising borrowing costs in the US economy have been blamed for a spate of poor results at some of Malaysia’s biggest companies, such as carmaker Proton Holdings Bhd and carrier Malaysia Airline System Bhd (MAS), which have led the index lower than it began the year.

The KLCI has risen in the last half of December in 24 of the last 28 years, said Chris Lobello, a risk and trading strategist at CLSA, the investment banking and brokerage arm of French bank Credit Agricole.

And a repeat of the gain is possible, he added.

“There’s a strong motivation for people to end the year in positive territory. There isn’t much liquidity, and with lower turnover and lots of domestic funds with a high cash level, any potential for window-dressing could drive the market higher,” said Lobello.

He added: “This year there is good reason to expect the trend to continue with current levels just below last year’s close, and strong interest from many parties for the index to close the year in positive territory.

As at yesterday’s closing, the KLCI was down 1.4 per cent, compared with a gain of 13 per cent in Singapore’s Straits Times Index and a 19 per cent advance in the Indonesian benchmark. Thailand’s SET Index has had a 3.4 per cent advance in the period.

But rather than the Malaysian stock market staging a collective advance, only selected blue-chips are expected to rise in the weeks ahead, some traders said.

“A broad-based Christmas rally is as likely as Santa Claus appearing,” said a senior dealer with a local brokerage.

“A rally in terms of selected index stocks is not a problem, but a broad rally? Forget it. People are looking to sell on any sign of a rally.”

The KLCI has been dragged down by a spate of losses at some of the nation’s largest firms.

“The usual suspects will be pushed up for dividend declaration or window-dressing. But I don’t think anybody is any wiser on the question of whether there will be a sustainable rally, or if it’ll be a one-day wonder,” said Raymond Tang, chief investment officer at CIMB Principal Asset Management.

“The fundamental reason for a Christmas rally is that most state funds will have a net asset value (NAV) that is underwater for the year and that’s going to look terrible,” said a senior dealer with a foreign brokerage. — Reuters

DESIDERATA: As I had written before, here's repaet of a caution. Those speculative players, which comprise 90% of retail, on the market (Saham, not pasar-lah!) stand less than 10% chance of "winning". Their odds will improve to 4 to 6 at the Genting Highlands, or Lowlands at the 3D+1 Da Ma Cai or 4D Magnum or Sports Toto outlets (I declare I have zero interest/s in these aforementioned highly capitalised companies ...). This is attributed by one Economist I know whose name rhymes with Wong, which in Chinoserie means Fortune, which means you win in 9 out of 10 at any game of Dice, mice and men. I forgot Vice, came as an forethought recalled.

Let's go over the counter for more Amore lifters.

At mGf Yan's Corner - In Touch, I steal love notes quite often for digestion -- entree, dish, desSert, also-canned.

So Love Quote of the Day on November 28, 2005 (Luv, like wine, beautifies with Age, butt this came from the Olde folks, hence it's loaded, or pregnant, or hemmed up, watever!) reads:

Love: A temporary insanity curable by marriage.
Ambrose Bierce

Of all the music that reached farthest into heaven, it is the beating of a loving heart.
Henry Ward Beecher


And a new ESTEEMEDREADER Peggy had an interesting collection which I "borrowed" off her, in the same spirit of Yuletide, with NUGGETS, one must give to share with others.

Yuletide is the Season of Jolly (Shandy) and Giving (Nuggets), so here goes some gems by courtesy of Peggy, new friend at Blogsworld.


In mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them.- Johann von Neumann

"When you encounter seemingly good advice that contradicts other seemingly good advice, ignore them both."- Al Franken

When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: 'Whose?'- Don Marquis

Stoop and you'll be stepped on; stand tall and you'll be shot at.- Carlos A. Urbizo


SPECIAL MISSIVE to "Peggy" from Desi:
Cos I "RECOPIED" your maiden commment at Desi's Place, to correct the date of entry wrongly recorded during to a quirk in blogsworld, I forgot to note the name of your Blog, which I visited via your Named link. So dear Peggy, I Hope you re-comment today and I promise I won't make the "same" mistake twice! I'll offer two cuppa of tehtarik of Welcome! Wellcome!!

And lustly, so that we do not appear to be like Katak dibawah Jambatan Lundun :the latest World Update
Monday December 19, 2005

Sex, lies and surveys on students’ chastity


BEIJING: Media obsession with female students' chastity, or the lack of it, has moved up a notch with a student paper at a top university here refuting a report on the high rate of sexual activity.

The survey was conducted in response to an online claim that only a minority of female students at Beijing Foreign Studies University (Beiwai) were inexperienced in sex.

“I feel this is unfair. Female students as a group have been the target of a demonisation campaign,” said He Min, a junior of the school majoring in journalism, who spoke on condition that her real name not be revealed.

Chinese media, especially the tabloids, seem to be fixated on the private lives of female college students.

There are numerous reports of college girls moonlighting in houses of ill repute, with some stories putting their number very high.

A posting titled “The night life of a Beiwai girl,” which has been making the rounds on the Internet, claims to be a first-person account of a san pei (escort) girl in the city's Sanlitun bar district.

Also, an online survey, purportedly conducted by the Beijing Film Academy's “Single Men Society,” concluded that by the time they graduate, only 15.86% of female students at Beiwai are virgins.

He Min defended their “good name” with their own poll, which was done on campus.

The result, published in 107 Investigation, a student newspaper, said that only 11.5% of female students engaged in sex during their college years.

Discussions on Internet forums show that most Chinese are troubled by a sense of sliding morals, which they attribute to a growing materialistic craving.

The loss of virginity at a young age is often seen as a manifestation.

Some experts have different views.

“The Beiwai students were trying to protect their values,” said Ai Xiaoming, a feminist scholar.

“But it played right into the traditional virginity obsession.” – China Daily

DESI: I apologise for not gifting thee the link to the surveyors' - or isit purveyors? - webpage. I think among many of my ER are some under-age of non-dissent fans, so I shall not teat on dangerous waters. Or euphemistically speaking, Desi behaving like An angel who roams where the Devel fears to tread ... sumthin' close to that,closin' NutGift of Vicedom for another Tuesdie with No Worrie!