Thursday, March 29, 2012

Market Summary -- 29th Mar 12

FTSE STI closed 2,994.09, down 21.89 points or -0.73% with a total volume of 1.63b and a total value of S$1.13b.  Total number of advance vs decline was 124 vs 221.  Of the 30 component index stocks, 3 closed positive, 5 remained unchanged and 22 closed negative.  The 3 gainer component stocks were :-

1. CityDev  +0.080
2. HKLand US$  +0.050
3. ST Engg  +0.010

The top 5 loser component stocks were :-

1. Jardine C&C  -0.320
2. JMH 400US$  -0.300
3. JSH 500US$  -0.280
4. UOB  -0.260
5. KepCorp  -0.150

US markets closed in the red yesterday again due to lower than expected Durable Goods Order data.  Asian bourses taking the cue continued the drop from yesterday.  Nikkei closed -0.67%, SSE -1.43% and HSI -1.32%.  STI fell 0.73% in a moderate volume day with only 3 of the 30 index stocks managed to register positive closing.

It is all about window dressing the past few days which should be dragging into tomorrow, the last day of 1Q2012.  From the past days of selling, it is of not surprised that certain funds are selling off position to book realized gain for their portfolio.  The selling should be drying up comes next month and next month the catalysts that will move the market should be corporate earnings.

While the global economic situation has not be becoming worse of as compared with 6 months ago, it also never spell of as all the troubles were totally resolved.  European debt nations still undergoing restructuring and US unemployment situation still more efforts to improve on.  As of that, when the markets get over excited and rallies up, it will have to pull back due to valuation and fundamental reason.  Similarly, when the markets get oversold down, due to valuation and fundamental reason, it will be due for rebound.  In a way, markets presently are trying to settle down in a fair valuation based on current economic situation.