News by Syahirah Syed Jaafar

This is after the REIT said its net property income fell 9% to RM103.51 million for the third quarter ended March 31, 2020 (3QFY20) from RM113.77 million a year ago on lower revenue, which fell 7.1% as its retail and hotel segments were hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd (MRL), the project and asset owner of ECRL, said it received the approval in a letter dated May 14 from the Land Public Transport Agency (APAD).

“Do not revert the country to a situation of political turmoil while the people are still [facing] various problems and a difficult future due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”

The Melaka-based group, which is involved in property development, property investment, hospitality, retail and education, will also implement a 30% pay cut for employees firm-wide, while some will be on unpaid leave for six months starting May 1.

“About 40,000 or 96.8% of respondents said they had benefited from the Prihatin Economic Stimulus Package announced by the government on March 27, of which 68.2% said they had received three forms of assistance, whereas 13.9% received two and 17.9% received one,” the DOSM said in a statement today.

The ABM said its member banks will communicate with impacted customers on the exact procedures they will need to follow to take up the moratorium as well as the instalment payment options available to them once the six-month moratorium is over.

Affin Hwang Capital analyst Brian Yeoh: The potential divestment of Tesco Malaysia is a positive news for Sime as the hypermarket has been reporting continued losses since FY15 (financial year 2015) [except for FY18, likely due to one-off effects] due to intense competition from discount grocers and the growing e-commerce space as well as an increase in affluent customers.

MCCC said the Malaysian Optical Council under the Ministry of Health had earlier approved the operating of optical shops during the first and second MCO periods (March 18 to April 14) since the optometry service is categorised under essential health services.

Some quarters, like JP Morgan and Malaysian Institute of Economic Research, had previously predicted that Malaysia's Covid-19 infections would only peak by mid-April.

The daily recoveries figure exceeds the new cases for the fourth time this month. There are 118 new confirmed cases, an increase from 106 yesterday.