Morning Highlights

Our Focus For Today Is On Small Cap

Singapore market started firm on Friday, with the STI opened up 9.5 points to 2919.02,  after technology stocks lead Wall Street higher overnight. Intel profit surges to $2.3 billion.

Singapore News Updates:

  1. Ezra announced a Q1FY10 net profit of US$18.4mn, a 93% increase year-on-year. The stock was placed on trading halt yesterday. In a separate announcement, the company said it secured a maiden Subsea Inspection, Maintenance and Repair contract worth US$12mn. The stock will resume trading this morning.
  2. Capitaland is exploring a possible joint venture with Hersing Corporation Ltd to own and manage self-storage facilities under the brand "StorHub".
  3. In a report by the Dow Jones Newswires yesterday, SingTel could be selling around 25% of its Australian unit Optus through an initial public offering in Australia that could raise about A$4 billion. (Warrant)

News Updates:

  1. Kodak files patent suit against Apple and Blackberry market Research In Motion alleging they infringed Kodak digital imaging technology, said Thursday.

  2. U.S. November business inventories up 0.4% after gaining 0.4% in October.

  3. U.S December import prices were unchanged as fuel costs declined for 1st time in 3 months, said Labour Department.

  4. U.S. December retail sales down 0.3%; First-time Claims for Unemployment benefits rose more than forecast to 444,000 last week.

  5. China property prices rise fastest in 17 months.

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>

Bullish Stocks (Singapore)

Symbol

Name

Entry

SL

TSL

TP

Remarks
1 WLIL Wilmar International 7.30 6.97 7.63
2 HLAA Hong Leong Asia 3.36 3.18 3.54  
3 SCNB Sembcorp Marine 3.92 3.68 4.16
4 MIIF Macquarie International Infrastructure Fund Ltd 0.53 0.475 0.585
5 ADFP Asia Food & Properties 0.685 0.615 0.755  
6 QMDT Q & M Dental Group 0.63 0.575 0.685  
7 KOON Koon Holdings 0.535 0.435 0.635  
8 RVHL Riverstone Holdings 0.65 0.565 0.735 CLOSED at 0.65
9 ATVE Asiatravel.com 0.805 0.74 0.785 0.87 PROFIT – CLOSED at 0.82
(trend weakens)
10 MCPP Marco Polo 0.61 0.55 0.67 LOSS – CLOSED at 0.605

Here’s Our Mid Term Holding Opportunities:

Symbol

Name

Entry

SL

TSL

TP

Remarks
1 OCBC Overseas Chinese Banking Corp 8.83 8.15 8.55 9.51 Overnight, Current Price at 8.80
2 UTOS UOL Group 4.06 3.20 3.74 4.92 Overnight, Current Price at 4.08
3 DBSM DBS Group 15.48 14.34 14.40 16.96 Overnight, Current Price at 15.14
4 STEG Singapore Technologies Engineering 3.27
3.00		 3.12 3.54 Overnight, Current Price at 3.21
5 NOBL Noble Group 3.29 2.95 3.63 Overnight, Current Price at 3.27
6 PARM Parkway Holdings 3.02 2.74 3.30 Overnight, Current Price at 2.90
7 HYFL Hyflux 3.81 3.42 4.20  
8 SIAT Singapore Airport Terminal Services 2.80 2.53 3.07  
9 OCGL Oceanus Group 0.475 0.34 0.61  
10 GENS Genting Singapore 1.32 1.05 1.59  

Stock Prices last updated at 17:05 (Singapore Time)

Afternoon Highlights

We have closed our positions for both Marco Polo and Riverstone as both trends bend. We won’t want to reverse our position to shorting yet because current market is more upside biased, and 2900 level is holding quite well. Hence, we would prefer to stay on the sideline for the time being. Furthermore, Riverstone has liquidity problem.

News Updates:

  1. Singapore retail sales grew at a pace of 1.2% month-on-month in November; Down 1.4% Annually and Consensus 2.2% Fall

In Summary,

Index closed down 1.1 points to 2908.42 with 1.6792 billion traded today.

In terms of weekly, this week dropped 14.34 points with 12.2611 billion traded. Last week, market was up 25.14 points with 13.4028 billion traded. In comparison, this week drop is deemed as a market pullback.

We would like to see low volume transaction during market consolidation and an increase in volume once market resume its upward trend. Do lookout for 3000 point.

Last but not least, we are on the lookout for Genting, which could be a potential long term investment. Our Focus is still on Small Cap, but very selective.

Quoted from The Edge,

Chart Watch: Short-term decline
The STI’s decline was more measured than its North Asian peers with the index falling 27.7 points to 2,888. Support for the decline is at 2,800, and the still rising 50-day moving average is at 2,795. Last Friday, short-term indicators had turned down. Monday’s move to a new high of 2,933 created a minor negative divergence. This is not a major divergence, and a failure swing hasn’t materialized. Against this background, the down move should be temporary as the main uptrend remains intact.