Morning Highlights

There Are No Quick Picks For Today…

Singapore Stocks slumped modestly in early trades, with the STI down 0.61% to 2777.10 within first 25 minutes

Corporate Announcements

  1. Yanlord and Ho Bee, through a 60:40 equity ownership respectively, jointly acquired a 13.69 hectares residential development site in Qingpu area, Shanghai for RMB3.82 billion. The site can generate 246,487 sqm of residential GFA.
  2. Sembcorp Marine’s subsidiary Sembawang Shipyard has secured major longevity, upgrading and damage repair contracts worth S$130 million, reinforcing its reputation as a world-leading ship-repair yard.
  3. Federal International Ltd announced that it expects to report a loss for the 4Q and for year ended 31 Dec 2009, due to the write-off of certain project acquisition costs incurred by the Group not previously expensed or written off. It also announced the termination of the subscription agreement dated 22 Jan 2010 entered into between Federal International Ltd and Chua Leong Hai, Chong Thim Pheng, Chow Bon Tong, Ong King Sin, Chua Kian Lin, Phua Hua Seng, Chng Hee Kok, Sia Ling Sing, and Law Yip for the issue and allotment by the company to the subscribers of an aggregate number of 62,964,000 new ordinary shares in the capital of the company.

News Updates

  1. US regulators launched a preliminary investigation into reported steering problems on the Corolla sedan on Wednesday as Toyota Motor Corp faced questions from US lawmakers on whether it had ignored red flags on safety before a wave of vehicle recalls.. 
  2. Governments around the world continued to impose protectionist measures in the last quarter of 2009 despite economic stabilisation, according to a report from the Global Trade Alert website issued on Thursday.
  3. Fed sees moderate economic recovery, slow job growth: FOMC minutes‏.
  4. H-P's earnings climb 25%, beating estimates; company also raises full-year outlook‏.
  5. U.S. stocks close higher on economic data, stronger earnings; Dow's up 40 points‏.
  6. The MSCI World Index of 23 developed nations’ stocks advanced 0.7% at 4:02 p.m. in New York. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.4% a day after the benchmark U.S. equity measure surged the most since November. The Dollar Index rallied as much as 1% to 80.528, weighing on metal prices and shares of commodity producers. The yield on the 2-year Treasury note rose six basis points to 0.86% and the 10-year yield increased eight basis points to 3.74% (Bloomberg) 

Afternoon Highlights

Market is choppy…

  • Bank of Japan keeps rates on hold as expected, announces no new easing steps‏
  • China's Bank of Communications may try to raise US$4 billion US dollars through a rights offering to strengthen its balance sheet.
  • India’s annual food price index increased to 17.97% as on week ended February 6 from 9.82% growth in the corresponding week of the previous year, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said on Thursday

In Summary,

Singapore market traded weak today ahead of the final Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data for the fourth quarter on Feb 19.

The STI shed 24.87 points to 2769.19. In the broader market, losers beat gainers by 303 to 123, with 1.3722 billion traded.