Thursday, February 2, 2012

Market Summary -- 2nd Feb 12

FTSE STI closed 2,901.01, down 3.72 points or -0.13% with a total volume of 3.33b and a total value of S$1.91b.  Total number of advance vs decline was 463 vs 141.  Of the 30 component index stocks, 15 closed positive, 13 closed negative and 2 remained unchanged.  The top 5 gainer component stocks were :-

1. SGX  +0.170
2. Wilmar  +0.120
3. JMH 400US$  +0.090
4. NOL  +0.085
5. Jardine C&C  +0.070

The top 5 loser component stocks were :-

1. DBS  -0.170
2. JSH 500US$  -0.140
3. KepCorp  -0.120
4. HKLand US$  -0.100
5. OCBC  -0.060

US markets rose at least 0.6% yesterday night after better than expected industrial data offsetting a lesser than expected private sector hiring.  Asian bourses opened higher taking the cue but closed mixed for the day.  Nikkei closed +0.76%, SSE +1.96% and HSI +2.00%.  STI maintained at positive region throughout the day only when closing fell 0.13% as tracking weakness in European bourses in another heavy volume day of more than 3 billion.  15 of the 30 index stocks registered positive closing as blue chips were in consolidation and range bound while attention shifted to penny and laggard stocks hence producing heavy daily volume.

Investors will be looking at tonight US jobless claims and tomorrow night unemployment data.  This employment situation in US has entered into such a scenario that regardless good or bad data, will have positive impact.  Should the employment situation is not as expected and given this year is Presidential Election, focus will be creating jobs by the Presidential candidates which eventually will one way or another manage to create some jobs.  On the other hand, should the data to be continue on the positive side, this indicating US job market is slowly recovering.

Watch the daily volume, should be shrink, prepare to exit penny and laggard stocks and shift attention back to blue chips.