Recently, United Nations’ International Labour Organization (ILO) published the average monthly salary or wage for the whole world & the average for 72 countries. For the whole world, the average is USD1,480 per month.

The figures are published for the first time. It’s a rough figure based on data from 72 countries, omitting some of the world’s poorest nations. In addition, all figures are adjusted to reflect variations in the cost of living from one country to another.

To make comparisons in living standards across countries, economists use specially adjusted exchange rates. The figures in this calculation are given in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) dollars. One PPP dollar is equal to 1 US dollar spent in the US. But a US dollar goes further in some countries than in others.

The limitations of the data are.

• The data (for 2009) covers 72 countries, and misses out some big ones, Nigeria, for example.
• Only wage earners are counted – not the self-employed or people on benefits.
• In some countries, the data is incomplete – in South Africa, for example; it leaves out public sector workers and agricultural workers, while in Uganda, it covers only the manufacturing sector.
• To see gross versus net salaries in any country you need to use a local salary calculator like this one from Industry Super Australia.

The table below is the rank of average monthly salary or wage in the world. Malaysia was at number 45 out of 72 countries with average monthly salary of USD961 per month.

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There are many Stock Broker or also known as Participating Organization, which licensed to trade in Bursa Malaysia. Full list can be found in Bursa Malaysia website here.

For 2011, the largest stock broker by trading value was CIMB Investment Bank with 10.36 percent from total trading value up from 9.80 in 2010. On the other hand, the largest trading volume was OSK Investment Bank with 11.85 percent of trading volume but only 6.58 percent in term’s trading value. Seem like, people who trade via OSK like to invest in penny stock!

Generally, in 2011 total trading volume & value were higher when compare to 2010. Trading volume up 30% from 506,498 million in 2010 shares to 658,463 in 2011 while trading value up 12.2 % from 780,723 in 2010 to 876,334 in 2011.

The table below shows top 15 largest stock brokers trade in Bursa Malaysia in 2011 based on Trading Value and Trading Volume.

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In view of the bullish sentiment in global equity markets as well as the increasingly upbeat sentiment on the construction sector fuelled by the flow of positive news, OSK is maintaining OVERWEIGHT call on the sector.

There are plenty of trading opportunities in the run-up to the official awards of contracts by the Government.

Given the ruling Government’s focus on getting a two-thirds majority in the upcoming General Election, OSK do not expect further delays in the implementation of these mega billion-ringgit infrastructure projects as the ruling coalition goes all out to win the hearts and votes of the rakyat.

Below are the target price, market capitalization and rating for selected stocks in construction sector.

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EITA Resources Berhad Initial Public Offering (IPO) received an overwhelming response with its public portion of 6.5 million shares. It was oversubscribed by 19.47 times. The IPO attract 5,739 applications or 133.0 million shares.

In addition, 17 million shares made available for private placement to identified investors have been placed out.

The IPO allocate 6.5 million shares for public. Of these, 3.25 million shares were allocated for Bumiputera category while 3.25 million shares were allocated for Malaysian Public category.

Below are the allotment summary for public portion.

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