1. Jardine C&C +1.060
2. JMH 400US$ +0.910
3. UOB +0.230
4. F&N +0.200
5. CityDev +0.120
5. JSH 500US$ +0.120
The top 5 loser component stocks were :-
1. DBS -0.060
2. StarHub -0.030
3. SingTel -0.030
4. SembMar -0.020
5. SIA Engg -0.020
US markets closed in the red with average of 0.3% drop, the seventh drop out of the past 8 sessions. Retail Sales data came in below expectation despite Citigroup's earning beating expectation. Asian bourses were trading between positive and negative region for the day but mostly closed positive. Nikkei closed +0.35%, SSE +0.62% and HSI +1.75%. STI in line with regional bourses closed +0.54% in moderate value and total value of the day recovered back to above S$1b with contribution from F&N and OCBC after the news of OCBC selling F&N stake. 19 of the 30 index stocks managed to register positive closing.
It was "hoping for stimulus" theme which drove up the regional bourses including positive opening from European bourses. The awful economic data coming out recently has painted more hopes on US Fed launching QE3. Again the effectiveness of QE3 to US economy is a big big question mark after the failure of QE1 and QE2. However, the idea of flooding more cheap money which most believe will flow into stock markets give the "feel good" feeling. DON'T BOTHER ABOUT QE3, IT WILL NOT SOLVE US PROBLEM. Note also that the past 2 QE brought nothing but inflation to especially Asian countries due to the huge inflow of easy money. Asian countries recently just managed to fight off high inflation and will not want to enact that issue again. Will not be surprised Asian countries will put in measures to limit the inflow of the easy money especially towards the properties.
Singapore this morning announced a surprised upside to the June non-oil export data coming in +6.8% on year vs +2.1% expected and that provided some positive sentiment to the market. Singapore corporate earning getting underway now and investors are pretty much in focus on those result.
Remember focus on the fundamental and be only cautiously optimistic.
