LHN8 - Friday’s long red candle and 20EMA going down and expected to penetrate 81EMA at a tight range.  I see immediate support at $71.94 and then $71.33.

LHQ8 - Friday’s red candle supported at 81EMA @ $76.60.  Will have to see if this holds.  If not then will go lower to $75.00

The PM of Malaysia (Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) has announced a 40% fuel price hike of 0.78 sen which translates to RM2.70 per litre with immediate effect from midnight 4 June 2008. Petrol Stations everywhere are packed with vehicles lining up to fill their tanks before the price increase.

For a Toyota Vios, if you were paying RM78 for a full tank previously now you have to pay RM110. Assuming if you had to pay RM292 petrol for one month, with the 40% price hike now you will have to cough up an extra RM117 per month (dulu RM292 sekarang RM409) of petrol.

But trying to cool people’s anger for the ridiculous price hike, our PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced a RM625 annual rebate for people with cars below 2000 cc. Calculated monthly, RM625 will translate to RM52.08 per month (RM409 - RM52.08=RM356.92). Not much help, right? Don’t think that you’re only paying for the price increase in petrol. Daily necessities like meat, vegetables and rice will also skyrocket, not to mention milk powder - why, my baby still needs her milk!!

I proclaim our PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi a qualified rocket scientist - albeit an uncertified one. He has the guts to say don’t be angry about the increase, and that the government had to do it now for the nation’s long-term benefit? Malaysia is an oil producing country and with the soaring crude price it should benefit the country more and the people should NOT be penalized by being forced to pay more for what we ourselves produce. Our former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad says that “…Petronas made a profit of well over RM70 billion, all of which belong to the Government.….the Government is flushed with money”. If this is true (and people with a decent mind can tell you that it is), can we assume that this is a punishment after the ruling coalition party lost 5 states to the Opposition at the recent General Election in March 2008 - unprecedented !!

The next UMNO General Assembly will be in December with mounting pressure for him to step down from the public as well as within UMNO and very pronounced by Dr Mahathir Mohamad, it is very unlikely that Abdullah Ahmad Badawi can stay on as PM for very long. It is believed that private arrangements are already being made between the PM and Deputy PM (Najib Tun Razak) for the transition of the PM’s post. So, why did Abdullah Ahmad Badawi choose this time to increase the fuel price to add on to his unpopularity? Unless there are other ulterior motives? So, even if he had to exit and take his “crown” down, he and family would still be the winner at the peril of the rakyat.

Looking at the 6 month daily chart, SBN8 has been on a downhill pattern since it peaked at $15.18 on 4 March 2008. It is trading near the 1 year low of $9.56. Yesterday it traded at a low of $9.82 before recovering to close at $10.02. The 20EMA crossed over the 200MA on 21/5/2008 and I expect the 81EMA to cross the 200MA line sometime next week. The MACD is indicating that it will go higher sometime next week. Will keep an eye on this one.

Today is Sunday and we decided to hike up to Hill No. 3 from Youth Park. Why is it called No. 3? I don’t know but the highest is No. 5. I thought it would be easy way up since I see children hiking up the trail as well. The first 10 minutes was rather easy - there are 2 ways up at different intervals, you can either go up the steps which are rather steep but takes shorter time or you can take a longer route. It took us 30 minutes to get to No. 3 but it was rather exhausting. Thank goodness I’ve been having cardio exercise every Wednesday which I’m sure helped quite a lot. At No. 3 there are 2 ready pots of tea and water and a big can of biscuits.  I hear that there is even char bee hoon (fried noodles) at No. 5.  All these are free for hikers and you can even contribute to the beverage fund if you like. You can sip a cup of tea and enjoy the clear view of downtown Pulau Tikus.