1. JMH 400US$ +2.760
2. JSH 500US$ +1.380
3. Jardine C&C +0.650
4. CityDev +0.210
5. DBS +0.150
The top 5 loser component stocks were :-
1. SingTel -0.090
2. SPH -0.050
3. SIA -0.050
4. ST Engg -0.040
5. SIA Engg -0.040
US markets closed at least +1.50% last Friday after a better than expected number of jobs created despite unemployment rate rose 1% to 8.3%. Asian bourses taking the cue closed positive for the day. Nikkei +2%, SSE +1.04% and HSI +1.69%. STI closed +0.67% at 3,071.82 a new high for this year in moderate volume. 20 of the 30 index stocks register positive closing.
The positive sentiment from the US jobs number offsetting past 2 days of disappointment from US Fed and ECB and that was basically the reason for the continued advance on the global stock markets. Other than that nothing much has changed. Though sentiment is biased towards positive at the moment but investors have to keep in mind that do not habour big hopes of stimulus from US Fed and ECB. As the hope bubbles build bigger any slight disappointment will burst it and stock prices will have more room to drop. Cautiously positive still the key to this year stock markets.
Over the weekend, Italy PM warned on the risk of Euro if no concrete actions are taken by EU political leaders and that is not something to ignore with. ECB has limited ability to stimulate and much of the works have to be carried out by the EU political leaders. Hence, over expectation of ECB is not justify. ECB will act if appropriate but only within their power limitation.
In local front, the news of F&N willing to sell its APB stake to Heineken was the main focus for STI today. However, with ThaiBev also has stake in F&N, it is possible ThaiBev could block the deal. Advice for investors of F&N and APB is if recently chasing the price of the two, have to be cautious.
To summarize, sentiment is positive, momentum could continue but profit taking could also kick in for market to pull back.
