Morning Highlights

Singapore shares started on a positive note after US capped their best three-day run in 10 months overnight. STI opened up 17.36 points at 2897.69.

Index spent the morning tracking the Hang Seng Index, eventually ending the session up 3.89 point up at 2884.22.

Corporate Announcements

  1. Singtel announced that its customer base increased 17% year-on-year to 293 million.
  2. Singtel announced 13.1% growth FY10 net profit to S$3,910mn. Proposed final dividend S$0.08
  3. Yanlord announced 46% decline year-on-year in 1Q10 net profit to S$21.3 million.

News Updates:

  1. U.S. Stocks rallied with tech shares pacing the advance. The S&P 500 surged 1.4% to 1,171.67 at 16:00 in New York, above its highest close since May 4. Dow Industrials rise 149 points.
  2. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 1.5% as all 19 of its industry groups gained.
  3. US federal prosecutors investigating Morgan Stanley, Wall street journal reports. Morgan Stanley loses 5% of market value in premarket trades following investigation report. 
  4. Cisco posts 63% higher profit 'CEO says game plan "is hitting on all cylinders".
  5. A top Federal Reserve official said on Wednesday that a US$1 trillion rescue package to keep Greek debt woes from spreading appears to have calmed financial markets but warned that indebted nations must address fiscal problems or face future crises.
  6. Gold futures for June reached $1,249.20, the highest ever.
  7. Prudential gets in principle nod for AIA buy.
  8. SAP to buy Sybase for US$5.8 billion.
  9. Japan March current account surplus hits 2-year high.

Quick Picks: Here is a quick pick screen that we have designed to pick out potential stocks, both Bullish and Bearish. These are measured with emphasis on larger changes in price and volume. <The Quick Picks referred herein contain overnight positions from Yesterday>

Bearish Stocks (Singapore)

Symbol

Name

Entry

SL

TSL

TP

Remarks
1 SCOF Super Coffeemix 0.92 0.85 9.35 0.99 PROFIT – SOLD Half at 0.96 and the Rest at 0.955

Stock Prices last updated at 17.05 (Singapore Time)

Afternoon Highlights

Index rose higher at the start of afternoon session, but eventually trend downwards again towards closing.

  • Capitamall Trust broke 1.99
  • Singapore to release final Q1 GDP data on May 20 

News Updates:

  1. Sembcorp says Cascal case will be heard on May 19
  2. Hotel Properties Q1 net profit slipped to S$9.77 million, compared to S$10.71 million a year ago.
  3. Olam  3Q net profit up 2.6% from last year to $89.3 million (US$64.6 million).
  4. Malaysia Q1 GDP up 10.1% on yr, rate hike seen

In Summary,

Index finished weak, down 12.41 points to 2867.92, with 1.6774 billion traded. Gainers led losers by 269 to 212.  

Top decliners included the Jardine group, STX Pan Ocean, City Developments and Keppel Corporation