Trading volume was disappointing as it only increased slightly in this last week when the market rallies after the rebound. The average daily trading volume last week was 750 million shares and the previous week’s average was 662 million. Average daily trading volume below 1billion shares are considered weak. The market was slightly bullish because of positive leads locally and internationally. Locally, industrial production and export numbers were growing on-month and jobless rate fell. World Bank confidence about having a positive GDP in year 2010 and increasing foreign participation in the local equity market boost confidence further.

Internationally, governments in developed nations are confident that the global economy is improving and Australia is the first G-20 nation to raise key interest rates since the start of the global financial crisis more than a year ago as the government believes that the emergency low rates are no longer needed. In the world’s largest economy, manufacturing increases and jobless claim declines.

Daily FBMKLCI Chart

The US Dollar continues to slide against major currencies, continuing its down trend. This again has pressured prices of commodities to increase. Price of Gold in COMEX continues to make historical highs and is currently at US$1,050 an ounce, increasing 5% in a month. Crude Oil in NYMEX continues to stay around US$70 a barrel. Rubber futures in TOCOM slightly rose month-to­-month but it jumps about 6% last week to JPY$214.80 a kg. However, Crude Palm Oil futures in Europe Store Exchange declined from EUR 2,200 per metric ton a month ago to EUR 2,030.

The FBMKLCI is well supported by the short term trend. The benchmark index continues to stay above the short to long term 30 to 90-day moving averages despite several pullbacks from the uptrend that started in April. A major correction is yet to be seen in this 6 months bullish trend. Momentum indicators are about to turn bullish again after mixed signals in the past few weeks.

The RSI and Momentum indicators are starting to move away from the middle level and the MACD indicator is about to cross above its trigger line or 9-day moving average. ADX indicator has just started to increase again, showing good strength in momentum last week.

The Bollinger Bands started to expand again with the FBMKLCI penetrating the top bands after testing the middle band two weeks ago. The same situation (the expansion) happened exactly a month ago and the FBMKLCI made new highs for the year. Therefore, we may expect the same to happen again and this time the projection is 1,280 points before it finds the next resistance. The average daily trading range is the same as the previous week.

Price Map - Direction Forecast

The immediate support and resistance levels are still at 1,196 points and 1,230 points respectively. The FBMKLCI is currently testing this resistance level for the second time in a month. The market is set to test newer highs because of the strong bullish reversal and breakout. The next resistance level is between 1,280 and 1,300 points. However, if the market fails to make new highs and the FBMKLI falls below the 1,196 points support level, then the next support level it is going to test is at 1,150 points.

Looking ahead, the leading Ichimoku Cloud indicator continues to contract last week and this indicates that the support for the uptrend is getting thinner. Being a leading technical indicator, a major trend reversal is not expected until the cloud bands cross. Therefore, there is still a chance for the market to maintain its uptrend at least for another month.

The market sentiment is still bullish and the FBMKLCI is expected to rise in the short term to the next resistance level between 1,280 and 1,300 points. This is only valid if the benchmark index stays above the immediate 1,196 points support level. In the longer term, a major correction is expected to take place once the index moves into the next resistance level. My price map/direction forecast chart for FBMKLCI remains the same as last month.

Therefore, current opportunity is only good for short term traders who trades short term profits because the market is expected to test new highs but with a limited upside. However, accumulating shares for the long term (3 to 5 years) may be too risky at current levels as prices are way above the long term average. Opportunity for long term accumulation only exists when the market pulls back to its long term average or below it (a 200-day moving average can be used as a benchmark).

So, longer term investors have to patiently wait for a major correction to happen. My longer term

forecast (1 year) for the FBMKLCI when it goes into a major correction is still at 900 points and therefore accumulating shares when the index moves to this level or slightly above provide a better low risk opportunity for longer term investors.

This is an opportune time for business owners to seriously consider investing in commercial properties, most notably shop houses, office lots and factories, as a means of expanding their operations, utilizing surplus funds or simply to diversify their investment portfolios. Investment in private real estate such as houses for rent may also help positively diversify investment portfolios.

Commercial properties are a good buy at this juncture because business owners can capitalize on the significant drop in mortgage rates which was preceded by some national bank’s cutting of the overnight policy rate to an all-time low of 2% per- annum in February 2009. Borrowers will be able to enjoy the prevailing low rates and save substantially on interest payments by leveraging on the low mortgage rates and lock in at this level for the tenure of their loan.

For risk conscious investors, current alternative investment instruments may prove to be beyond their risk profile in this bearish environment. To mitigate risk, investors should balance their portfolio with a selection of differing investments. As such, some banker and investor believe that commercial properties offer a more stable rental yield. As the latest property induces have shown, demand for commercial spaces has remained relatively constant and unabated compared to other investment vehicles. Properties continue to be excellent assets to hedge against inflation when prices start to rise on the heels of an economic rebound.

While it is ideal for investors to buy at the right time, the right place, and at the right price, most of the time it is all about striking a balance. An estimated 3 million square feet of office space as well as another 3 million square feet of retail space will be added to the Kuala Lumpur landscape this year as a result of launches from the past couple of years. Investors will have ample opportunity to select from diverse locations and types of spaces, and also reap the benefit of numerous freebies offered by developers ranging from free legal costs to discounts in prices. They will also be privy to an array of financing schemes.

Business Mortgage One Account (BMOA) is specifically designed for SMEs and business owners who in the course of their operations will have periods of surplus funds. The BMOA provides a very smart solution for business owners to enjoy savings by using cash in their current account to shorten their loan principal amount, with the added benefit of redrawing with no penalties charges from their surplus payments.

In situations where the SME wishes to ensure his funds are fully optimized for the operating cycle of his business, our SMI One Account is the perfect business mortgage solution because he gets the best of both worlds — funds in his operating account can generate interest credits for the benefit of his business mortgage outstanding.

While we are mindful that property purchases are long-term investments and being fixed assets, are not as liquid as investments in equity; the return on property investment may not be lower than equity investments.

Root beer is a beverage made from a combination of vanilla, cherry tree bark, licorice root, sarsaparilla root, sassafras root bark, nutmeg, anise, and molasses among other things. Each root beer has a unique recipe. Root beer constitutes about three percent of the American soft drink market. Many local brands of root beer exist and home-made root beer is made from concentrate or (rarely) from roots.

In fact, even prior to this period, root beer was served, and it was then called ‘Black Cow Mountain’ inspired by a moonlit view of Colorado’s Cow Mountain with snow on top. Kids later shortened the drink’s name to Black Cow. For those not on a diet, recipes add chocolate syrup, whipped cream and a cherry on top. But for those on a diet, ice cream can be partially replaced by skim milk and root beer with diet root beer. Root beer itself has a history that relates to the ancient practice of brewing native plants (twigs, bark, roots) as healing herbal teas.

However, that fateful drink put a delighted smile on Allen’s customers’ face and put him into business. But Allen’s drink or mix was unique – blended from the juices of 14 herbs, spices, barks and berries – and it proved very popular with the thirsty public and in 1922, Allen started a number of outlets to sell it. With the success of his first root beer stand in place called Lodi, Allen soon opened up a second stand in nearby Sacramento. It was there that what is thought to be United States‘ first ‘drive-in’ featuring ‘tray-boys’ for curb side service opened up.

Later, Allen teamed up with Frank Wright, one of his employees, and the name A & W was born. New items were added to the menu and A&W became well. Known as a fast food restaurant offering good food at low prices, and served up fast. Before long, the chain restaurant had spread out beyond the boundaries of California and soon, there wasn’t a state in America where you couldn’t find an A&W restaurant. It had become part of the American way of life.

In 1924, Allen bought Wright’s share of the business to actively pursue a franchise sales program. He had the name, A&W Root Beer and the A&W logo legally trademarked with the U.S. Patent. By 1933, the creamy beverage was such a success that Allen had over 170 franchised outlets operating in different places. To ensure uniform quality for the namesake beverage, Allen sold A&W Root Beer to concentrate exclusively to each franchise operator. His profits were derived from the sale of the concentrate and a nominal license fee.

During World War II no new restaurants were opened. Despite governmental sugar rationing (this affected supplies of bottler’s sugar, a necessary ingredient of root beer) and employee shortages (also a result of the war) most A&W units remained successful. After the war the number of A&W restaurants tripled as loans were available for private enterprise to flourish.

In 1950, with over 450 A&W’s operating nationwide, founder Roy Allen retired and sold the business to an aggressive Nebraskan named Gene Hurtz who formed the A&W Root Beer Company. The post war era – the rapidly recovering economy and popularity of the automobile provided the right environment for Hurtz’s company to prosper. Drive-in was becoming increasingly popular and A&W had the privilege of being one of the few nationally established drive-in restaurant chains. By 1960 the number of A&W’s had swelled to over 2000.

The popularity of A&W soon spread to other parts of the world and Asians had their first taste of it in 1963 when Malaysia opened its first outlet at Batu Road (now known as Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman) where it still does brisk business today. In Malaysia, there are more than 26 A&W restaurants and the company has plans to open more. The opening of new stories not only brings the great taste to more Malaysians but also provides employment as well as management opportunities to people. In fact, A&W has become a household name among Malaysians and its menu offers a wide variety of items to suit every member of the family, including the refreshing A&W Root Beer, the ever popular Coney Dog, Waffle, Curly Fries, Onion Ring and Mozza Burger which are unique products of A&W.

It was the first food chain to be opened in Malaysia. It has also gained a mention in the Malaysian Book of Record to that effect. A&W (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd was awarded the “Golden Mug Award” in recognition of its achievement for being the best managed franchisee in the world in 1996.The award was presented by A&W International President/CEO in Las Vegas, USA.

America loved the taste of A&W Root Beer. So, in 1971, United Brands formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, A&W Beverages, Inc., for the purpose of making A&W Root Beer available on the grocery shelf. First introduced in Arizona and California, the cans and bottles of A&W Root Beer was an instant success. Retailers nationwide were soon carrying the product.

Several ownership changes took place during the sixties and seventies. In 1971, United Brands formed a wholly owned subsidiary, A&W Distributing Co., for the purpose of making A&W Root Beer available on the grocery shelf. In 1974, A&W sugar-free was born along with “The Great Root Bear,” a mascot that served as a goodwill ambassador for the brand. Though the purchases and mergers plagued the expansion efforts of A&W restaurants, the root beer remained the category leader.

In October 1993, the A&W brands, excluding the restaurants, became part of Cadbury Beverages Inc. Today, the A&W brands continue under the ownership of Plano, Texas-based Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc., the largest non-cola soft drink enterprise in North America and the largest subsidiary of London-based Cadbury Schweppes plc.

Much has changed since Roy Allen first sold root beer from his roadside stand on that hot summer day in 1919. Yet, the one thing that hasn’t changed in 85 years is that people over the world love the rich, smooth, thick-headed taste of A&W Root Beer. Clearly, A&W Root Beer has stood the test of time. And, all the credit for that goes to the genius of Roy Allen.

Died    : April 5, 1992 (aged 74)in Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S.

Occupation      : Former Chairman, Wal-Mart

Net worth        : US$58.6 bn (1992 Forbes 400), $128.0 billion (2008), according to Wealthy historical figures 2008.

When a person from Berryville, Arkansas, began opening discount stores outside towns where Sam Walton ran variety stories, he saw what was coming. So, on July 2,1962, at age 44, he opened his first Wal-Mart store, in Rogers, Arkansas. Discounting had hit America in a big way.

Once committed to discounting, Walton began a fight that lasted for the rest of his life. That is to drive costs out of the merchandising system wherever they lay – in the stores, in the manufacturer’s profit margins and with the middleman – all with a view to reducing the prices down, down, and down. Using that formula, which reduced the prices drastically, Wal-Mart sales grew at a relentless pace. Walton hit the road to open stores wherever he saw opportunity. In fact, he would see the layout of the places in his low-flying airplane. When he found the right place in intersections he would touch down, buy a piece of farmland and order up another Wal-Mart store.

As the chain began to take off, Walton made major adjustments to manage the growth. Meanwhile, as early as 1966, when he had 20 stores, he attended the IBM Computer School in order to hire the smartest guy in the class who would computerize his operations. He understood the need for computerizing his merchandise control. Today, Wal-Mart’s computer database is second only to the Pentagon’s in capacity, and though he is rarely remembered that way, Walton may have been the first true information-age CEO.

To his great delight, Walton spent much of his career largely unnoticed by the public or the press. In fact, hardly anyone had ever heard of him when, in 1985, Forbes magazine determined that his 39 per cent ownership of Rd Mart’s stock made him the richest man in America. After that, the first wave 01 attention focused on Walton as a famous retailer. His extraordinary charisma had motivated hundreds of thousands of employees to believe in what Wal-Mart could accomplish, and many of them had traded the company’s stock to wealth. It was truly the American Dream.

Sam Walton was born on March 29,1918 to Thomas Gibson and Nancy Lee Walton near Kingfisher, Oklahoma. In Oklahoma, they owned and lived on a farm until 1923.The Walton family then decided that the farm was not profitable enough to raise a family on. So, Sam and James (Sam’s younger brother born in 1921) had decided they would go back to being a Farm Loan Appraisers. Once this job started the Walton family moved out of Oklahoma and moved from town to town in Missouri. This would traumatize most children but for the Walton boys, it was no big deal. This could be seen when Sam was in 8th grade at Shelbina he became the youngest boy in the state’s history to become an Eagle Scout and this was only a stepping stone to his journey of accomplishments.

As Sam Walton grew up he was always an ambitious boy. He had to help support his family, along with his father and brother because money was lacking due to the depression. Sam’s job was to milk the family cow, bottle the milk, and then deliver the surplus to customers. He would go off to deliver newspapers afterwards. When he graduated from high school he was voted the “Most Versatile Boy” in his class. During this time it would have been easy for Sam to just give up on school and go to work full time. Seeing how his family was struggling to make ends meet, he decided he was going to stay in school and attend the University of Missouri.

As Sam grew up and anyone could see how determined he was to succeed and as time passed he went from being a poor town boy to the richest man in the world. Sam Walton had instituted 10 rules for success, and the 10th rule explains how he achieved all this. It says, “Swim upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody is doing it one way, there is a good chance you can find your niche by going exactly the opposite direction.”

Watson did force a lot of people to change the way they made a living. His use of informational technology to cut costs quickly traveled to all kinds of companies; and his pioneering retailing concepts paved the way for a new breed of  “category killer” retailers like Barnes & Nobles.(Category killer is a term used in marketing to describe a product that has a distinct competitive advantage that competing firms find it almost impossible to operate profitably in that industry.) This wave of low- overhead selling continues to accelerate. The Internet, in fact, is its latest addition. One can only wonder what a young cyber Sam would set out to accomplish if he were just getting started now.

The company went public (1970), and thanks to a unique decentralized and Sam’s charismatic leadership and celebrated hands-on management style, it grew faster in the 1980s. In 1991 Wal-Mart became the nation’s largest retailer with 1700 stores, and he was reported by distribution system Forbes to be the richest man in the country. He was president and chief executive officer until 1988 and chairman until his death. The family business empire included Arkansas and Oklahoma banks and newspapers. He was awarded the Medal of Freedom shortly before his death in 1992. In 1999 Wal-Mart took over the ASDA group (the second largest super market chain) in the UK.

Died    : August 5, 1991 (aged 84) in Japan

Occupation      :  Founder, Honda Motor Company Limited

Throughout his life, Soichiro Honda never forgot the day when he ran hopelessly after the first motor car he ever saw. Long before the car actually reached Yamahigashi, a small village in Japan’s Shizuoka province (now called Tenryu-shi), its own extraordinary noise announced its imminent arrival.The small boy who heard the rumble was at first astonished, then excited, and finally enthralled, by it.

Later he would describe that moment as one of those life-changing experiences. He began to tremble as the car came closer to him. Then, he turned and chased after that car as much as he could. “I could not understand how it could move under its own power. And when it had driven past me, without even thinking why I found myself chasing it down the road, as hard as I could run.”

He had no chance of catching it, and the experience became a symbol for his life: always he was chasing something that was just beyond his reach. He had always remembered a proverb that literally goes/raise the sail with your stronger hand,’ meaning you must go after the opportunities that arise in life that you are best equipped to do.” By the time the road was empty and the car long departed, the young boy continued to stand there breathing in its gasoline stench. When he came upon a drop of its precious lifeblood spilled on the dusty track, he dropped his knees and sniffed the oily stain like a man in a desert smelling water. This was a scene that later changed the course of world’s motor industry.

Honda’s spirit of adventure and determination to explore the development of new technology had its roots in his childhood. The family was not wealthy, but his father Gihei Honda instilled into his children the ethic of hard work, and a love of mechanical things. Soichiro soon learned how to whet the blades of farm machinery, and how to make his own toys. A nearby rice mill was powered by his small engine, and the noise fascinated him. He would demand daily that his grandfather took him to watch it in action. At school he got the nickname ‘black nose weasel, which is less derogatory in Japanese than it sounds in English, because his face was always dirty from helping his father in the workshop. Once he even forged his family’s seal using a bicycle pedal rubber on school report that were not up to the mark!

In 1917 a pilot called Art Smith flew into the Wachiyama military air field hr demonstrate his biplane’s aerobatic capabilities. Honda took the family’s poly cash box, borrowed one of his father’s bicycles and rode the 20 kilometer to a place he had never before visited. When he got there he soon realized the price of admission, let alone a flight, was far beyond his means, but after climbing a tree he watched the plane in motion, and that was enough. When Gihei learned what his son had done to get to the airfield, he was not angry with his son for taking the money and the bike. Rather he was more impressed will, initiative, determination and resilience.

Honda enjoyed racing, and set a speed record in 1936. At age 17, he won II, Chairman’s trophy riding alongside his boss under whom he worked as a mechanic. He suffered in a bad crash, breaking several bones including both wrists, and was persuaded by his wife to give up racing. Honda thereafter concentrated on his business, and in 1937 he moved into piston-ring manufacture, setting up Tokai Seiki Heavy Industry (TSHI). In 1948 Honda had sold TSHI to Toyota for 450,000 yen (worth about $1 million)

In 1948 Honda began producing motorcycles as president of the Hondo Corporation. Honda Motor Co. Ltd. initially built small capacity motorcycles to gel Japanese workers moving. While Honda focused his considerable energies on the engineering side, using all the experience he had painstakingly accumulated and left the running of the company in the hands of Takeo Fujisawa, his most trusted friend and urged him to look to the long-term.

They complemented one another perfectly. When the first fruits of their partnership hit the streets it was a 98 cc two-stroke motorcycle appropriately named “Dream”. Honda turned the company into a billion-dollar multinational that produced the best-selling motorcycle and resulted in Honda motorcycles out-selling other brands in the respective home markets. In 1959 Honda Motorcycles opened its first dealership in the United States.

Soichiro Honda was the prototypical F1 engineer. He was always probing new limits of technology, always seeking better and greater feedback from the men who rode or drove the machines that bore his name. He reasoned that ambition was no sin, and that success was the reward for hard work and investment. Honda was the first major manufacturer to understand that motor sport was the perfect miscible in which to develop not just superior machines, but superior engineers, aid today every global player in the Fl game rotates its engineers through its motor sport programs.

He followed the Japanese saying that said, “if you hire those people you understand, the company will never get people better than you are. Always remember that you often find outstanding people among ‘hose you don’t particularly like.” He is also the author of the famous quote, “success represents one per cent of your work which results from the 99 percent that is called failure. Success can only be achieved through repeated failure and introspection.”

He died in 1991 from liver failure. At the age of twenty, Mr. Honda was called up for military service but he was, medically examined and found to be color blind. Thanks to this diagnosis because he managed to avoid spending any time in the military. He was not just admired for his ability to repair machines, but gave free rein to his talent as an inventor, later earning the title “the Edison of Hamamatsu” and starting to do all kinds of work that went far beyond the narrow bounds of a repair workshop. Today, Honda Motor Company is one of the largest and most successful automobile manufacturers in the world. This evolution came about because of one man, Soichiro Honda. As he rightly put it “Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; Philosophy without action is worthless”: Needless to say, he had both in the right measure and in perfect balance.

With annual revenues of more than $10 billion, the company is ranked 195 on ill^, Fortune 500 and was added to the Global 500 at number 441.

In fact, the visionary entrepreneur was not able to attend college. In 2000, Ii’ presented the University of St.Thomas with a gift of $50 million – the largest gift to the school’s 115 – year history and largest donation ever reported by a Minnesota College or University. Schulze has a special liking for this university; because this is the university he wanted to go but could not!

Schulze, grew up in the St. Thomas neighborhood and attended Nativity of Our Lord School, about a mile from the campus. He had intended to enroll at St. Thomas after schooling, but service in the Minnesota Air National Guard and work for his father’s electronics distribution company derailed his plans. Schulze, an entrepreneur, used all his assets to follow his dream and opened a small audio – components store, Sound of Music, in 1966. It expanded and evolved into what we know as Best Buy that today employs more than 60,000 nationwide through 354 stores in 37 states. Meanwhile, St. Thomas University awarded him an honorary doctor of laws degree in December 1998. It is Minnesota’s largest private university, and enrolls some 10,000 students.

The company is spending an estimated $80 million a year on what it is calling “customer centricity,” a massive effort to identify and serve its most profitable shoppers by rebuilding stores, adding staff and upgrading wares. Best Buy has little choice. It also has some experience in navigating through the most treacherous storms.

lo 1966, Schulze opened the Sound of Music, an audio specialty store in St Paul, Minnesota. The company grew over the following years, expanding to nine locations by 1980. In 1981, Schulze’s most successful store was destroyed by a tornado. The tornado ripped through its largest store, in St. Paul, resulting in a $200,000 loss for the year and a near – brush with bankruptcy. “We’d forgotten to buy business – interruption insurance,” says Schulze. The water – damaged goods were sold at a “best buy” sale. Not only ‘BEST BUY’ became the company’s permanent name, similar ‘Tornado Sales’ became an annual Sound of Music event. Best Buy’s first superstore opened in 1984, a carbon copy of Circuit City Stores, which was then nearly 40 times its size. A year later Best Buy went public and began a climb that sent it past its chief rival in 1995; it has enjoyed the lead ever since.

Then came the next calamity – a 1989 price war with Highland Superstores, which hurt Best Buy’s bottom line and shoved Highland into bankruptcy. Emerging from this victorious, Best Buy remodeled its stories: open ceilings, concrete floors, fluorescent tube lighting. Staff on commission gave way to hourly employees who did their best to make themselves invisible to shoppers simply wanting cheap electronics. Best Buy grew rapidly from sales of $240 million in 1987 to $7.2 billion in 1996.Who knew the digital revolution could be such a rush? Best Buy did – and it’s selling more pricey gadgets and hook up services than anybody.

It operates retail stores and commercial Web sites under the various brand names, such as Best Buy, Future Shop, Magnolia Audio Video, and Geek Squad, as well as an outlet store on e-Bay. As of July 15, 2004, the company had 619 United States Best Buy stores, 22 Magnolia Audio Video stores in the United States, 109 Future Shop stores and 19 Canadian Best Buy stores internationally. The company is based in Richfield, Minnesota.