Fuel prices down another 10sen

The retail price of petrol and diesel will go down another 10sen effective Wednesday (3/12/2008). The price of RON97 petrol would be down to RM1.90 per litre from RM2.00, while RON92 petrol and diesel would be down to RM1.80 from RM1.90 per litre.

Venus, Jupiter and the Moon: watch a smiley face in the sky

Damn.... I missed this smiley face yesterday night. Anyway, I wish all of you - SMILE ALWAYS!!!

News: On Monday (1 December 2008) night, there will be a spectacular conjunction between the two planets Venus and Jupiter and the crescent Moon. Although the three brightest objects in night sky will appear to be bunched up close together in the sky that does not mean that they are actually close to each other. They are, in fact, just in the same line of sight. The Moon is the closest at about 400,000 km away from Earth. Venus is almost 400 times further away while Jupiter is almost six times further away. They are not close to each other at all.

Effective today, Maybank Cuts BLR to 6.5%

I checked on my Maybank Home Loan Account this morning, my current BLR rate has been cut down 0.25%. Whoaaaa.....

News: Maybank Group announced a revision to the Bank’s base lending rate (BLR) by 25 basis points from 6.75% to 6.5% effective 1 December 2008 following the downward revision of the Overnight Policy Rate by Bank Negara Malaysia.

The base financing rate (BFR) of Maybank Islamic Berhad is also revised downward by 25 basis points from 6.75% to 6.5% effective 1 December 2008.

ASIMO at Penang Queensbay Mall

I'm thinking to bring my kids to see ASIMO today, what about you...

Here are the details.

ASIMO Roadshow at Queensbay Mall
(The World’s Most Advanced Humanoid Robot)
Starting November 27 – 30, 2008
Time: 10.30 AM – 10.30 PM
Venue: Central Atrium Ground Floor

27 November 5:30 pm and 8:00 pm

28 November 1:00 pm, 3:00 pm, 5:30 pm and 8:00 pm

29 November 11:30 am, 1:30 pm, 3:30 pm, 5:30 pm and 8:00 pm

30 November 11:00 am, 1:00 pm, 3:00 pm, 5:00 pm and 7:45 pm

Let's go to LONDON with cheaper fares

Congratulations to AirAsia X for the effort to bring us to UK with cheaper fares. Cheers!!!

LONDON: It’s £99 or RM499 one-way – that’s the much-awaited opening fare of AirAsia X’s latest London Stansted – Kuala Lumpur route.

And AirAsia Group CEO Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes has pledged to knock down the price to as low as £49 (RM271) once they increase the flight frequencies.

Saying it would be “cool” to take a £50 note and buy a seat to Kuala Lumpur, he said there was no reason why they could not do it.

“Volume is the key. If we can find the plane and get two or three flights a day, I guarantee you £49 will be a reality,” he told Malaysian journalists after the sales launch of the latest route at London’s County Hall yesterday.

Even with the £99 fare, it’s still cheaper to fly from London to Kuala Lumpur than to take a Black Cab from the city to Stansted Airport, which costs about £110 (RM610) one way!

Malaysians flying to London will also pay RM499 for the return flight while travellers from London going to KLIA will pay £99 (RM541) for the return ticket.

Online bookings opened at 8pm Tuesday (Malaysian time) for the five-times-a-week direct flights which will be for the travel period between March 11 and Oct 24.

Fares start from as low as £99 (RM499) for economy seats and £549 (RM1,999) for XL seats – inclusive of airport taxes and charges.

The latest flights will use Airbus A340 planes which will have 286 economy and 30 premium seats.

Fernandes said his next step would be to increase the five times weekly flights to daily and even two or three times a day.

“The London-Kuala Lumpur route is the realisation of a long-held ambition to open up affordable access between Malaysia and Europe for both the Asean and European communities,” he said.

AirAsia X CEO Azran Osman Rani described the London route as a significant achievement, allowing those who had always wanted to travel between Europe and Asean to achieve their dream at an affordable price.

Stansted Airport’s commercial and development director Nick Barton, who finalised discussions with AirAsia X, hailed the launch as a major milestone for low-cost, long-haul air travel around the world.

The latest route is the first step for AirAsia to realise its European aspirations and boost Kuala Lumpur as the regional aviation hub and gateway into Asean, China and Australia.

Stansted is Britain’s third busiest airport, with 22.8 million passengers passing through and many leading low-cost airlines making it their base.

How Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) lowered to 3.25% Affect Us

PETALING JAYA: Bank Negara has cut its benchmark Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) by 25 basis points to 3.25% from 3.50%, and signalled it was ready to cut the rate further.

This was the first rate cut in over five years. The move, which can be considered well-timed as the economy slows, will result in a lower cost of funds for banks. This, in turn, brings down the cost of borrowing for consumers.

With the OPR set at 3.25%, the upper limit will be 3.50% and lower limit will be 3.00%. Interestingly, you might have noticed that the BLR of banks is set 3% more than this upper limit, and short term fixed deposit rate is set close to the lower limit, while long term fixed deposit rate (1 year or above) is set close to the upper limit.

In fact, under the new framework, each banking institution can announce its own BLR based on its cost structure and business strategies. Banking institutions are also no longer be subject to the maximum spread of 2.5 percentage points above BLR. As a result, you might have noticed that the BLR of certain bank is a little bit different from the majority counterparties.

When the OPR is low, more money is released to flow into the market, and expected to stimulate the economic activities. On the other hand, when the OPR is high, more money will flow back to Bank Negara, and expected to slow down the economic activities. This is seen as a way to control the inflation rate.