FTSE STI closed 3,208.50, up 12.43 points or +0.39% with a total volume of 3.77b and a total value of S$1.67b. Total number of advance vs decline was 220 vs 190. Of the 30 component index stocks, 16 closed positive, 2 unchanged and 12 closed negative. The top 5 gainer component stocks were :-
1. CityDev +0.160
2. OCBC +0.110
3. KepCorp +0.090
4. SingTel +0.080
5. Capitaland +0.070
5. SIA Engg +0.070
The top 5 loser component stocks were :-
1. Jardine C&C -0.090
2. HKLand US$ -0.050
3. UOB -0.040
4. JMH 400US$ -0.040
5. F&N -0.040
US markets closed mixed yesterday with Nasdaq down while the other 2 up. Better than expected retail sales data offset couple of downbeat economic data and continuation of drop from Apple share. Asian bourses were mostly down for the day. Nikkei -2.56% after Yen strengthen, SSE -0.7% and HSI -0.10%. STI outperformed regional bourses with +0.39% closing in moderate volume and value day. 16 of the 30 index stocks registered positive closing.
The short-term market direction was dictated by corporate earning and economic data but the mid to longer term still focus on the US fiscal cliff for investors now. Asian bourses after strong performance since start of this year are undergoing profit taking and consolidation.
For STI, the up for the day was mainly due to SingTel with a +0.08 pushing up the index by at least 4 points and rebound in property stocks also help pushing the index up. Other than that, STI could well follow regional bourses ended in red. An oversold rebound in property stocks only as the impact of the latest cooling measures still yet to fully realize. Have to wait till 3 to 6 months later to check on the sale volume and price to see how much profit margin those developers have suffered due to the cooling measures. It is now too early to conclude bottom fishing for property stocks.
Another news for STI market was the F&N bidding war saga. With SIC intervention, both TCC and OUE who were in a bidding war to acquire F&N has till 20th Jan to end the taking offer extension and after that it will enter an auction stage to determine who will eventually gain the final control of acquiring F&N. After months of delaying, F&N shareholders might be seeing some improving bid on acquiring F&N from the 2.
