Morning Highlights

There Are No Quick Picks For Today

Singapore Shares kicked off the week positively, up slightly by 7.93 points to 2829.04 after news of a Greek rescue package from the IMF and European Union.

Nonetheless, we still expect market to be choppy. Currently Banyan Tree is the only stock in focus for now.

Watch out for China. economic data to be released today: April export numbers. ( According to a Bloomberg poll of 30 economists, the figure is expected to rise 28.9% yoy from the previous increase of 24.3% yoy. in March. Imports are expected to increase 51.5% yoy, slowing from the previous 66% in March. March saw China post its first trade deficit since 2004.)

Corporate Announcements

  1. UOB announced 71.2% growth year-on-year in 1Q10 net profit to S$700 million
  2. Sembcorp Marine announced 23.8% growth year-on-year in 1Q10 net profit to S$148.8 million. 
  3. Singtel announced that it secured the broadcast rights to the 2010 FIFA World Cup and will offer all 64 matches live on mio TV and mobile.

News Updates:

  1. Sovereign wealth funds meeting in Australia issued a call on Saturday for governments worldwide to take coordinated and urgent action to introduce finance-sector reforms and shore up confidence in global investment markets.
  2. U.S. economy adds 290,000 jobs in April; unemployment rate 9.9%‏
  3. House panel to convene hearing on Thursday's stock-market plunge‏
  4. European stocks close out worst week in 18 months‏
  5. Gold at five-month high.
  6. Crude oil for June delivery fell $2, or 2.6%, to settle at $75.11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest price since Feb. 12. Futures are down 13% for the week, the biggest drop since the week ended Dec. 19, 2008.
  7. Dow industrials' 141-point decline caps 4-day plunge of 772 points‏
  8. Nasdaq slides 8% and S&P 6% on week; Dow's 5.7% weekly loss is worst since October 2008‏
  9. Europe leaders agree on emergency rescue plan for Greece; announced a 500 billion euro (US$670 billion) stabilisation plan to keep Greece's debt crisis from spreading.

Afternoon Highlights

Singapore market inched upwards during the afternoon session.

News Updates:

  1. G20 backs EU steps, says to keep cooperating
  2. EU unveils $971 billion plan to defend euro zone. European banks surge as much as 18% after EU's 750 billion euro rescue plan‏
  3. China reported swinging back to $1.68 billion trade surplus in April

In Summary,

Market  up 59.37 points to close at 2880.48 with 1.7613 billion traded.

Most of the blue chips experience throwbacks today, we will expect most shares to trade sideway from here. Of all blue chips, Genting Singapore is more bullish than rest of the shares, lookout for resistance at 0.98.

We will expect wild movement from the market in coming days. Last but not least, property sector is weak.

Asian markets rebound, but Europe worries remain

"The markets are likely to remain jittery with respect to execution risk in the coming weeks," wrote analysts at Credit Suisse in a note to clients. "The markets will also closely monitor the additional fiscal consolidation measures to be presented by Spain and Portugal to the European Union finance ministers' meeting on 18 May," analysts said.