Morning Highlights

Singapore Share prices fell across the board in opening trade as dragged by losses on Wall Street, with the STI  gapped down 44.16 points at 2806.8.

Dow industrials down 200 points as materials sector paces sell-off‏. There was no escaping the downdraft from U.S. President Barack Obama's proposal Thursday to limit banks' risk-taking.

The concern over lending in China and banking reforms in the U.S also overshadowed better-than-estimated earnings at companies from Starbucks Corp to Xerox Corp and EBay Inc which sent U.S shares higher at the start of trading (Bloomberg). 

News Updates:

  1. US leading economic indicators rose 1.1% in December.
  2. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 36,000 to a seasonally adjusted 482,000 in the week ended Jan 16, the Labour Department said, rising for a third straight week.
  3. Google makes almost $2 billion in profit on a 17% increase in sales‏.
  4. Goldman Sachs Group Inc dramatically changed course on pay, setting aside nothing for compensation in the fourth quarter and instead giving US$500 million to charity.
  5. American Express profit nearly triples; company sets aside less cash to cover loan losses‏.
  6. Sinotel said it will place up to 28 million new shares at S$0.5755 each with with UOB Kay Hian Private Limited
  7. Mapletree  reported a net property income of S$44.9 million for Q4 ended Dec 31, 2009, 0.4% less than in a year ago.
  8. CMT's Q4 distributable income jumps 25.5% to $76.5m.

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 MIIF Macquarie International Infrastructure Fund Ltd 0.53 0.475 0.585
2 TIAN Tianjin Zhong Xin Pharmaceutical 1.25 1.14 1.36 CANCELLED
3 CWTD CWT Limited 0.925 0.83 1.02
4 TWCH Time Watch Investments 0.215 0.15 0.28  

Here’s Our Mid Term Holding Opportunities:

Symbol

Name

Entry

SL

TSL

TP

Remarks
1 HYFL Hyflux 3.81 3.42 4.20  
2 SIAT Singapore Airport Terminal Services 2.80 2.53 3.07  
3 OCGL Oceanus Group 0.475 0.34 0.61  
4 GENS Genting Singapore 1.32 1.05 1.20 1.59 LOSS – CLOSED at TSL

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

Market experienced steep pullback at the past 2 sessions. As of current,  Short & Medium trend are more biased on the downside though long term trend is still up. Market is likely to turn choppy from now.

The stronger stocks that we are on the lookout are Epure, Hong Leong Asia, CWT, CNA, China Essence and HiapTong

On the other hand, the weak stocks are OCBC, UOB and Yanlord.

It would be much better for the index to consolidate from this point, with no further pullback.

Afternoon Highlights

Index is supported at 2800.

URA's price index for private homes rose 7.4% in Q4 2009 over the preceding quarter, according to its flash estimates.

  • Hiap Tong broke high of 0.29
  • China Sports International Limited has entered into a placement agreement with UOB Kay Hian Private Limited to place up to 120 million new shares at $0.18 each.
  • Sony Ericsson reports Q4 loss.
  • Asia-Pac airline passengers slump 5.7% in 2009

In Summary,

STI closed lower 31.27 points at 2819.71, with 2.8868 billion traded.

We are on the lookouts for the 2 recent listed stocks, namely, Tiger Airway and Hiap Tong. Likely to have position from next Wednesday onwards.

  1. Tiger Airway opened at 1.50, highest traded at 1.61 and closed at 1.58.
  2. Hiap Tong opened at 0.27, broke it’s previous high of 0.29 and closed at 0.31.