Friday, October 4, 2013

Market Summary -- 4th Oct 13

FTSE STI closed 3,138.08, down 6.71 points or -0.21% with a total volume of 4.59b and a total value of S$1.23b.  Total number of advance vs decline was 91 vs 395.  Of the 30 component index stocks, 10 closed positive, 4 unchanged and 16 in the red.  The top 5 gainer component stocks were :-

1. JMH 400US$  +0.400
2. JSH 500US$  +0.160
3. Kep Corp  +0.070
4. SIA  +0.060
5. StarHub  +0.050

The top 5 loser component stocks were :-

1. Jardine C&C  -0.940
2. HKLand US$  -0.210
3. CityDev -0.140
4. GLP  -0.080
5. Semb Corp  -0.070

US markets fell with a rise in jobless claims and still no solution for the US Government shutdown and debt ceiling, as such US Government still remain partially shutdown.  Asian bourses were mostly in the red for the day with Nikkei -0.94%, HSI -0.33% and SSE still close for holiday.  STI though in the red but was relatively flat on a thin volume and value day with only 10 of the 30 index stocks registered positive closing.

No solution to US Government shutdown and debt ceiling despite President Obama held talk with political leaders from House and Senate.  Investors were now starting to weigh the damage that could impact US economy as well as globally as the clock ticks and no solution was proposed.  The US Government partial shutdown might be narrowed to domestic damage but the default should US Government does not do anything to the debt ceiling will have international effect as almost every countries are holding US Government bonds.  However, do not get too pessimistic with the debt ceiling as rest of the world are holding diversify nation bonds rather that weighing heavy on just US Government bonds.  Short-term impact will be there but longer-term perspective might not be very worst.  Moreover, nowadays, global leaders are fast in pressuring those to come out solution to any potential deadly problem.

STI was under selling pressure and not only the blue chips but even the penny too.  SGX has recently queried couples of the penny regarding their trading activity and first action was carried out today when it suspended blumont share.  That killed off lot of speculation and punting opportunity to other pennies too.  This should be good as most of the penny without fundamental just get speculate up from proprietary traders and brokers with were on punting gain and in the other it was the retail investors who get the burnt.  Investors should not bet on punting for short-term gain but rather focus on fundamental and has a long-term time frame and that should enable one to have minimum risk and good profit.