☕️ Eyes on Sarawak - the high-income state in a middle-income Malaysia

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

A survey by CelcomDigi reveals that 65.5% of respondents have faced scam attempts, with phone calls being the most common method at 52.6%. The National Scam Awareness Survey 2024, which included 10,839 participants nationwide, found that 52% of respondents block scam numbers, while 32% inform family and friends. Overall, the respondents reported a total of 17,912 scam attempts — that’s an average of 1.65 scam attempts per person.

USD5.4 bil — the financial losses of Fortune 500 companies from the recent CrowdStrike outage, according to insurer Parametrix. A costly faulty update security software that brought some parts of the world to its knees — disrupting internet services globally and impacting sectors like airlines, banking, and healthcare. The insured portion is estimated to be between USD540 mil to USD1.08 bil. Do you know there’s such a thing as cybersecurity insurance?

Two pistols owned by Napoleon Bonaparte, which he intended to use to kill himself, were sold at auction for EUR1.69 mil (RM8.56 mil). Created by Paris gunmaker Louis-Marin Gosset, they were expected to fetch between EUR1.2 mil and EUR1.5 mil. Sold at the Osenat auction house near the Fontainebleau palace, where Napoleon attempted suicide after his 1814 abdication, the pistols have been classified as national treasures by France's culture ministry. This classification bans their export and gives the government 30 months to purchase them from the new owner, who remains unnamed. View the pistols here.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

Best ever STPM performance for the country
Malaysian Examinations Council (MPM) chairman Prof Mohd Ekhwan Toriman announced that the country recorded its best Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) ever by scoring a national cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 2.84. It is also a win for the B40 group as 71.95% of the pupils who scored a perfect 4.00 CGPA are from the low-income group. Non-attendance is still an issue as 3.17% of the candidates registered did not turn up for the exams. Among the reasons for ghosting STPM are gaining employment, continuing education at the diploma level or in other programs, and being ill or dead.

The states of Johor (171 candidates), Sabah (130 candidates) and Pahang (106 candidates) churned out the highest number of candidates achieving a bull’s eye 4.00 CGPA. Congratulations to all STPM graduates for passing the hardest exam in Asia and the 7th most difficult exam in the world.

Eyes on Sarawak - the high-income state in a middle-income Malaysia

• Deputy Works Minister Ahmad Maslan told Dewan Negara that his ministry has been allocated RM600 mil to repair critical sections of the ‘redline’ alignment in Sarawak. The redline refers to the original routes spanning 134 kilometres that were constructed before the Pan Borneo Highway (LPB). The repair works will start with refurbishing 17 kilometres and constructing an interchange at Batu 8 Sarikei.

• The decision to grant Petroleum Sarawak Bhd (Petros) as the sole aggregator of Sarawak’s natural gas trading business by 2025, from Petroliam Nasional Bhd (PETRONAS) may adversely affect Pertronas’ domestic upstream CAPEX in the near future. With that, PETRONAS is believed to go full steam ahead on its overseas ventures, especially in Canada and Argentina. Petros’ move to monopoly Sarawak will likely create a domino effect as its neighbour Sabah is planning to do the same.

• Sarawak is slowly becoming the country’s green energy hub as two Chinese energy companies — Shanghai Electric and China Three Gorges International Ltd, which already have a presence in Sarawak — are ready to pull the trigger to invest RM10 bil into the state’s green energy plan. Three Gorges was the main contractor of the RM4.1 bil Murum Dam which became fully operational in 2015. Murum Dam is an important energy producer, especially for the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score). The Sarawak state-owned dam has the world’s tallest steeped chute spillway, 141 metres high.

Shorts

1. Maybank reassured its customers that all is ‘hakuna matata’ and they need not worry amid alleged claims that its Maybank2u database was published on a dark web forum. Maybank added that various mechanisms such as the Secure2U authenticator and cooling-off period are in place to ensure customers’ online transactions continue to be protected. The alleged leaked Maybank2u database was being auctioned for RM84,100 and it contains up to 22 mil records of customers.

2. The Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia) has issued a Level 1 hot weather alert for two areas in Perak (Larut Matang and Kuala Kangsar), Kuala Kerai in Kelantan and Rompin in Pahang. Level 1 warning is issued when temperatures at a location are between 35°C and 37°C for three consecutive days.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

The United States of Protest

Trump: The campaign team of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission over incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris taking over the use of President Joe Biden’s elections war chest, valued at USD95 mil at the end of June. They argued that the move is a “brazen money grab”, calling it “the largest campaign finance violation in American history”. It is unlikely that the commission will be able to resolve this complaint before the presidential election on Nov 5. A spokesperson from Harris’ campaign has brushed aside the complaint, calling it a “baseless legal claim”, and that Team Trump is distracting themselves while Harris’ team goes on to “sign up volunteers, talk to voters, and win the election”. Harris herself was at her debut rally, where she went after Trump’s status as a convicted felon, and that he will lead the US to be “a country of chaos, fear, and hate”.

Israeli PM: The US Capitol bore witness to a different protest as well, when some 400 members of the Jewish Voice for Peace activist group organised a sit-in to demonstrate against US military support for Israel. Police arrested over 200 demonstrators, stating that while the protestors had entered the building legally, it was illegal to hold a demonstration in congressional buildings. This comes ahead of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the US, where he is to address Congress and meet with Biden, Harris, and Trump in separate meetings. He is expected to focus on coordinating the Israeli and US response to the situation in the Middle East where a wider regional conflict is possible.

FBI Director: Meanwhile, FBI Director Christopher Wray is the next to come under the spotlight over Trump’s attempted assassination, though it is expected he will escape most of the criticism that led to the resignation of US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle. However, the hearing is expected to be marred by politics from the bipartisan nature of the committee. New footage has also surfaced about the shooting, shared by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley. Warning – graphic footage here.

Tesla out, BYD in?
Elon Musk’s automaker just saw its worst profit margins in over five years, reporting USD1.48 bil for the second quarter compared to USD2.7 bil a year ago. Tesla cited slashing EV prices and increasing spending on AI projects as the reason, with the automaker claiming it was on track to produce new vehicles, including more affordable models, in the first half of 2025. This comes after the firm laid off over 10% of its staff to cut costs, leading to Tesla’s profit margin also being weighed down by restructuring costs. Musk, who just activated his Starlink satellite internet service in a hospital in Gaza, has promised results in the form of self-driving Tesla vehicles without human supervision by next year, which has been met with scepticism among analysts.

Musk also pivoted the company’s strategy in the quarter just ended, shelving the development of a new cheaper car model, looking instead towards lower-cost versions of existing models. The quarter just ended was also the second straight quarter of declining EV deliveries for the firm, as consumers turned to more affordable new models from rival EV makers. One example would be BYD, which recently seized more market share from Tesla in Southeast Asia. The Chinese EV maker saw a strong growth of 83% in Singaporean EV sales and recently reported a 21% rise in second-quarter sales globally.

Football leagues band together to sue Fifa for “abuse of dominance”
Top European leagues and global players’ union Fifpro are suing football world governing body Fifa. The coalition claims Fifa is neglecting its responsibilities as a governing body and favouring its own competitions and commercial interests at the cost of the economic interests of national leagues and the welfare of players. Fifa responded by accusing some of the leagues of hypocrisy, claiming they were sending their players on global pre-season tours. It stated that its calendar was “unanimously approved” by a council formed of representatives from all continents, and is “the only instrument ensuring that international football can continue to survive, co-exist, and prosper alongside domestic and continental club football”.

Regional Updates

• Philippines gives foreign offshore workers 59 days to leave

  The eviction is for foreigners working in offshore gambling firms and follows President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s ban on Philippine Offshore Gambling Operators (POGO). The ban is due to the operators’ alleged links to crimes, human trafficking, and financial scams. The order to leave is expected to affect about 20,000 people, with most of the affected being Chinese nationals. POGO started emerging in 2016 and boomed in few years as companies capitalised on the liberal laws to target customers in China, where gambling is banned.

• ASEAN seeks to address Myanmar crisis, South China Sea tensions

  The latest meeting of the Southeast Asian bloc saw the member nations looking to end the civil war in Myanmar, which has led to the displacement of 2.6 million people. Efforts so far have been fruitless, largely due to the junta’s unwillingness to honour its commitment to dialogue. Currently, efforts led by Malaysia, Indonesia, and Laos are committed to delivering humanitarian aid and “pushing for inclusive national dialogue”. The bloc is also looking to finalise a code of conduct with Beijing regarding the South China Sea by 2026. There is a renewed urgency regarding the issue, due to the persistent confrontations between Beijing and the Philippines.

Shorts

1. Kathmandu crash kills 18

   The Saurya Airlines test flight was carrying 17 company employees and two crew members and was bound for the tourism hub of Pokhara as part of a routine maintenance check. The only survivor is the pilot, who sustained injuries but is not in critical condition. There is currently no clear reason for the crash, though Nepal as a nation is heavily criticised for its poor air safety record. All Nepali air carriers are banned from entering the airspace of any European Union country.

2. Mattel hops on DEI train with inclusive Barbie line 
   The newly-launched line of Barbie dolls aims to be more inclusive, according to the senior vice president of Barbie, and includes the first blind Barbie doll (view here) and its first black doll with Down’s Syndrome – the first was a white doll, released last year. The toymaker consulted foundations and societies to more accurately portray the dolls, and include more accessible packaging. There’s ESG, and there’s also DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion. 

3. Kaon particle discoverer honoured at 98 
   Rosemary Fowler, 98, discovered the Kaon particle, which led to critical discoveries in the theory of particle physics, including the discovery of the Higgs boson at Cern. However, she gave up her pursuit of a PhD 75 years ago, to focus on her family. She has now been honoured for her contribution to the physics community with an honourary doctorate from the University of Bristol, where she worked on her three academic papers about her discovery.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

1. The 5 most dangerous words in investing - “This time, it is different”.

2. TIME is back at it again with iconic covers.

3. More stats on Bumiputra and non-Bumiputra enrolment in SJKC by states.