Thailand Financial News

FANNIE REPORTS…

WASHINGTON: Fannie Mae Friday reported its fourth-quarter and full-year 2008 (more…)

Thailand Futures Exchange PCL (TFEX) appointed Globlex Securities Co., Ltd. and Trinity Securities Co., Ltd. to be market makers for gold futures, starting on March 2, 2009, said TFEX Managing Director Kesara Manchusree.

“Market makers will help gold futures trading maintain liquidity, since they are responsible for offering selling and buying prices of gold futures in every contract and maintain the spread between selling and buying prices (bid-ask spread) to be within the required range, while maintaining the minimum trading volume. (more…)

Seminar on “Economic Analysis for Investment in Year 2009 and Future Energy Situation”

at “Boiler & Pressure Vessel 2009” Exhibition on Friday, 27 February 2009 at 14.30 – 17.00 hrs. (more…)

Big C reported that 2008 net profit increased by 14% over last year.  Other financial highlights included:

- Robust growth in sales +9.2% and rental income +15.4% In the 2008 operating results for Big C Supercenter PLC and its subsidiaries announced recently, the Company had a net profit of 2,852 million baht compared to a net profit of 2,502 million baht for the same period last year, representing an increase of 349 million baht or 14%.

Big C net sales for 2008 amounted to 67,292 million baht, or an increase of 5,692 million baht or 9.2%. (more…)

Company’s Largest Nutrition Manufacturing Facility Will Serve Up to 1 Million Asian Infants and Children Each YearAnnounces Agreement to Open a New Nutrition Science Research and Development Center

Abbott (NYSE: ABT) opened its largest nutrition product manufacturing facility in Singapore to meet increasing regional demand for its pediatric nutrition products, including Similac(R). (more…)

Microcredit Interest Rates Generally Reasonable

Concerns that microcredit interest rates are unjustifiably high don’t find much support in the available data, according to a new research report by CGAP, the global microfinance resource center. Rates fell very fast in East Asia/Pacific and the Middle East/North Africa (annual declines of 3.7-3.9 percent), and moderately in Africa, Europe/Central Asia, and Latin America (0.9-1.5 percent). (more…)

-  Marks One Year Anniversary with New Collection of Trend-Setting Entertainment-Focused PCs -

Lenovo announces the latest additions to its Idea brand of personal computers for consumers, the IdeaCentre A6001 which is one of the thinnest all-in-one desktop PCs. (more…)

HSBC has built on the momentum of its Global Banking and Markets business, especially in the arena of debt capital markets (DCM), winning significant financial awards and topping league tables in 2008. HSBC was named IFR Asia Bank of the Year 2008. Pragmatic strategies lead HSBC to perform strongly across all debt-related products in Asia-Pacific, leading major transactions in G3, Asian domestic currency bonds, loan syndication and securitisation.

Frank Slevin, Head of Global Banking, Asia-Pacific, HSBC said: “All acknowledgments are testament to HSBC’s unfailing commitment to developing our global banking platform to better support the needs of our clients around the region. (more…)

Fitch Ratings notes in a just published special report, “Vietnamese Banks - Focus on Asset Quality: Three Stress Scenarios”, that 2009 and beyond is likely to prove very challenging for Vietnam’s banks. This is as loans quality is bound to deteriorate, particularly in relation to the broad property development sector and loans denominated in USD, and to borrowers in general, given banks’ very strong loans growth for 2004-H108. (more…)

The worldwide fall in oil prices and the global economic crisis has affected the Islamic finance industry, but the institutions’ accumulated liquidity and capital will help them withstand these pressures, says Moody’s in a new Special Comment.

According to Moody’s, the drop in oil prices poses two key challenges for the Islamic finance industry. (more…)