KUALA LUMPUR, March 10 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia rebounded to end higher today with the benchmark FBM KLCI reclaiming the 1,700 psychological level, supported by improved global sentiment after US President Donald Trump signalled a potential de-escalation of the Iran conflict, alongside Malaysia’s stronger Industrial Production Index (IPI) data. At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) increased 27.51 points, or 1.64 per cent, to 1,701.68 from yesterday’s close of 1,674.17. The benchmark index opened 10.68 points higher at 1,684.85, its lowest point today, and hit a high of 1,703.61 in the late afternoon session. Market breadth was positive, with gainers thumping losers 929 to 382. A total of 361 counters were unchanged, 982 untraded and 19 suspended. Turnover declined to 3.60 billion units worth RM3.75 billion from yesterday’s 5.52 billion units worth RM5.87 billion.
The earnings report is out for Microsoft Corp.
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| Behind the big figures, statistics indicate Microsoft going the Right Direction |
Microsoft's earnings today gave plenty of reasons for one to be positive about the company although it also saw the impact of a $2.1 billion operating loss factored in from the Nokia writeoff.
Looking at the off balance sheet revenues in Microsoft, you can see that there is a $24.5 billion basically locked down, but that hasn’t been delivered yet. It is likely that Microsoft Office 365, the company's cloud-delivered, subscription-based productivity suite is the driving force for a significant amount on Microsoft's off-balance sheet revenues.
It is obvious that the company is loving subscription methods to earn money more as the company switch their business focus. Microsoft Office 365 is the biggest revenue driver of the company’s enterprise cloud offerings. And it’s growing fast: Microsoft reported today that Office 365 has added 3 million subscribers in the last quarter, bringing it to 15.2 million users total.
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| Can Nadella drive the change in Microsoft? |
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella who has been praised for his effort to drive Microsoft change repeatedly called out Azure's strong growth in the enterprise via a conference call with analysts.
Commercial cloud ARR (the Microsoft division that covers cloud services sold to businesses, which includes Office 365, Azure and Dynamics) is at $8 billion, up from $6.3 billion last quarter, and $5.5 billion the quarter before. The growth gives a lot of reason to be optimistic with the company.
Microsoft won’t say how much of that growth is due to Azure. But the company did say that revenue doubled, and CPU usage also doubled, meaning more companies are buying Azure, straight up. Microsoft salespeople have been giving customers free Azure credits so they can kick the tires and see how it works, and it seems to have been paying off.
It is clearer that the Redmon company is shifting towards a new business model, where customers keep paying a little bit of money at a time, rather than a lot all at once. It’s painful for anybody watching the still-shrinking numbers of its legacy Windows and Office businesses, but the idea is that Microsoft will eventually reap big rewards.
Up next to watch for Microsoft: Can Windows 10 live up to the hype?
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