MONEY MASTER

M&A Securities released a research report yesterday and they believe the banking sector is bracing for a softer 2016. Softer 2016 for the banking sector? Loan growths are expected to decelerate to 8% in 2016. In contrast, the 2015's loan growth is at 8.4%. Two themes take central stage for 2016 in the banking sector according to M&A, lethargic loan growth and tight liquidity environment. For the research team in M&A, they feel that improvement in asset quality and leaner operating cost could be the drivers to support the banking sector in 2016. Top Picks in the sector: Maybank and BIMB Holdings. A quick look at the December 2015 banking statistics shows us a few important summary: Loans growth ended at 8.4% yoy in December, similar to November. This was largely due to a fine performance in household segment, pushing the average loan growth in 2015 to hit the 9.1% mark. A red flag is raised as loan applications were even weaker in December with a -8.3% y...

2015 sales fell slightly In 2015, the global semiconductor sales totalled US$335.2 billion, a 0.2% drop from the previous year.  Despite the strong start to the year, sales faltered and slowdown towards the second half as the industry faced issues with softening demand and a stronger dollar. Here is a breakdown by product groups for some of the largest segments by sale: Logic (US$90.8 billion) Memory (US$77.2 billion) Micro-ICs (US$61.3 billion) Sensors and actuators, NAND flash memory and analog recorded increases of 3.7%, 2.2% and 1.9% on a y-o-y basis. The December month shown a decreased in sales by 5.2% y-o-y and 4.4% decline on a m-o-m basis. The m-o-m decline was attributed to seasonal cyclicality with December typically being a weaker quarter, according to TA Securities report. The World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) is expecting a sales growth of 1.4% y-o-y in 2016 although TA Securities is of the view that the f...