Morning Highlights

There Are No Quick Picks For Today

Due to last Friday big drop, STI gapped down on open, fell 69.84 points to 2736.67. Banking stocks opened weak on worries of a possible debt crisis in Hungary and weak US jobs data.

Corporate Announcements

  1. Ezra announced the incorporation of a new subsidiary, Texas Limited Liability Company.
  2. Olam announced the incorporation of 2 new Singapore entities and 1 Mauritius entity.
  3. Sound Global requested for trading halt for 7 June 9am.

News Updates

  1. Gold priced in euros hit another record around 1,022 euro on Monday after the single currency plunged to its lowest in more than four years against the US dollar.
  2. U.S. economy adds 431,000 jobs in May; 411,000 are temporary Census hirings‏. The jobless rate fell to 9.7% from 9.9% as Americans discouraged by the lack of available jobs dropped out of the labour force.
  3. Friday’s plunge in the S&P 500 was the biggest on the day of a government jobs report since at least 1998, according to Bespoke Investment Group LLC; Dow slides 323 points in third-worst drop of the year‏.
  4. Some of Prudential's largest shareholders have approached former chief executive Mark Tucker over a possible return to the helm of the British insurer, media reported on Monday.
  5. The euro slumped amid concern the debt crisis will worsen after a spokesman for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said his nation’s economy is in a “very grave situation” and press reports fuelled speculation of trading losses at French bank Societe Generale SA.

In Summary,

Index closed down 24.63 points to 2751.88, with 787.82 million traded.

Index is likely to trade within the range from 2700 – 2800 but we will need more evidence to see whether index is able to hold above support at 2700 or to give way eventually.

For the mean time, long chart basis might be facing trend reversal. Do keep a lookout as we are expecting a rough week ahead...

Our Market Sentiment is still neutral but biased on the downside.

News Updates

  1. Retail sales report will show U.S. economy is softening, but big picture suggests worries of a double-dip recession are premature.
  2. Japan's benchmark stock index ends down 3.8%, its worst daily percentage loss of 2010‏.