Straits Times Index   

STI

Goodluck Ladies and Gentlemen.....................

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STI
  3671.08 0.9
SESALL
  1018.06 8.45
AS51
  6628 45.7
KLCI
  1382.27 -2.46
FTSE
  6461.4 -69.2
DOW
  13543.4 -51.7
NASDAQ
  2795.18 -15.2
SP500
  1502.17 -7.48
NIKKEI
  16249.63 -19.29
TPX
  1574.59 -0.54
HSI
  28925.26 -17.06

 

Quotes:

Singapore shares ended the morning session slightly higher Tuesday on bargain-hunting after the benchmark index fell in the previous three sessions.

Banking stocks led the rebound, although gains on the index were capped by investor caution over the worsening subprime credit crisis in the US.

The Straits Times Index had risen 10.78 points or 0.3 percent to 3,680.96 by the midday break, after trading between 3,663.15 and 3,704.16. Gainers outnumbered decliners 396 to 219, with 229 stocks unchanged.

There were 1.1 billion shares traded valued at 1.2 billion Singapore dollars.

While the valuations of Singapore stocks "are still attractive", the index will continue to take its lead from overseas markets, said Carmen Lee, head of research at OCBC Securities. "Local results can be good but I don't think it matters in the larger scheme of things with the focus centered on the US credit risks, at least in the short-term," said Lee.

Citigroup yesterday announced up to 11 billion US dollars in additional write-downs due to losses related to subprime lending.

But banks in Singapore have little exposure to the US subprime market and earnings remain robust, while strong loan growth in the Singapore property market is expected to continue in the next few years. "Therefore, the sell-down in banks because of what happens in the US is unwarranted," Westcomb Securities said in a note. DBS Group added 20 cents to 21.60 dollars, United Overseas Bank was up 30 cents at 20.60 dollars and Oversea Chinese Banking Corp rose 5 cents to 8.90 dollars. Among the blue chip gainers, Singapore Telecommunications climbed 6 cents to 3.92 dollars, Singapore Airlines was 10 cents higher at 19.60 dollars and ST Engineering rose 12 cents to 3.78 dollars. Creative Technology continued to climb on hopes the Singapore consumer electronics maker's earnings will further improve in its second quarter to December. The stock was up 75 cents at 7.35 dollars.

Property stock heavyweights were mixed, with Keppel Land up 5 cents at 8.30 dollars, CapitaLand flat at 7.70 dollars, while City Developments fell 10 cents to 14.80 dollars.

 

GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks mostly firmer as banks rebound; yen slips



Most Asian stock markets bounced higher on Tuesday as investors bought back beaten-down financial shares, helping whet appetite for riskier assets and halting the yen's rise against other major currencies.

Oil rose towards $95 a barrel, steadying from a recent pullback from a record $96.24 set on Nov. 1, while gold held within reach of a 28-year peak of $810.90 set on Monday.

Analysts said Citigroup's bombshell on Sunday that it faced as much as $11 billion more in credit losses had mostly been discounted by markets in Monday's selloff.

"Japanese stocks have pretty much priced in the Citi news during yesterday's session," said Kazuhiro Takahashi, general manager of equity marketing at Daiwa Securities SMBC.

By 0220 GMT, Tokyo's Nikkei average <.N225> had climbed 0.5 percent, steadying from Monday's 1.5 percent slide to a 7-week closing low, while MSCI's measure of other Asia Pacific stocks <.MIAPJ0000PUS> edged up 0.1 percent.

The MSCI index had slid 2.1 percent to a 1-½ week closing low in the previous session and was down about 5 percent from a life high set on Nov. 1.

Investors bought Westpac Banking Group , driving the stock up 1.6 percent. Australia's top investment bank Macquarie Group added 1 percent, while Japan's Mitsubishi UFG <8306.T> and Resona Holdings <8308.T> both gained more than 2 percent.

"I don't think you can read anything into (today's gains).

The market has been chopping around a bit lately," said Simon Doyle, head of strategy at Schroder Investment Management in Australia.

Citigroup's Tokyo-listed shares <8710.T>, which started trading this week, fell 4.4 percent, in line with a 4.9 percent slump in its U.S. stock after the banking giant was unable to assure investors that a potential $11 billion write-down for subprime mortgages won't grow. [ID:nN05258480] South Korea's Woori Financial <053000.KS>, which has the biggest exposure to U.S. subprime debt among Korean lenders, fell 3.2 percent.

Alibaba.com <1688.HK> more than doubled in value on its Hong Kong debut after China's largest e-commerce firm raised $1.49 billion in the city's most popular IPO. The stock hit a high of HK$32 versus an initial public offering price of HK$13.50.

Among the region's top markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index <.HSI> again lagged, easing 1.5 percent to extend Monday's 5 percent drop as investors continued to fret that Beijing will delay plans to allow mainland investors to directly trade in the city's listed securities. [ID:nHKG96366] YEN'S RISE HALTED Gains in stocks halted the yen's rise. Investors usually sell the low-yielding Japanese currency to fund purchases of higher yielding assets when risk appetite grows.

The dollar edged up to 114.54 yen from an overnight low near 114 yen, while the euro bought 165.80 yen , up from a low of about 165 yen on Monday.

Against the dollar, the euro was at $1.4475, still holding near a record high of about $1.4530 set on Nov. 2.

Japanese government bonds edged up as the market drew support from an early decline in the Nikkei. The yield on the benchmark 10-year JGBs slipped 1 basis point to 1.57 percent.

 

 

China moving to turn off the fund taps? Unlikely. ? Analyst Comments

Singapore S-chips came down big time yesterday on the following two pieces of news:

* One, China is not prepared to go ahead with the HK Through Train Scheme anytime soon, which would have allowed individual Chinese investors to trade HK stocks directly

* Two, Chinese QDII asset managers that are preparing to launch their funds have been told to reduce their exposure to the HK market and resubmit their proposals to Beijing

We don't see this as bad news for Singapore S-chips. The main reason for these "road blocks" is not because Beijing is against overseas investment. After all, the QDII and HKTT schemes were their ideas to begin with. In our view, they probably want more diversification in their maiden efforts to invest excess public funds overseas. Also, to put it bluntly, the HK stock market has gone up a lot in the last few months on foreigner buying in anticipation of China turning on the fund tap and Beijing obviously does not want either its fund managers or its citizens to be buying when foreigners are taking profit.

The upshot, very likely, is that it will be eventually positive for other markets, particularly Southeast Asia, as QDII funds will have to put more weighting on non-HK markets. Singapore S-chips should be a natural beneficiary of their interest eventually. And the HKTT Scheme is a purely HK issue, and should not affect fund flows to our markets.

 

Its going to be another mixed day for Asia.

Asia/Pacific			Last Trade	Change	Related Info
^AORD	All Ordinaries	Australia	6,673.700 8:53AM SGT	53.600 (0.81%)	Components, More
^SSEC	Shanghai Composite	China	5,634.452 Nov 5	143.357 (2.48%)	Components, More
^HSI	Hang Seng	Hong Kong	28,942.32 Nov 5	1,526.02 (5.01%)	Components, More
^BSESN	BSE 30	India	19,590.78 Nov 5	0.00 (0.00%)	More
^JKSE	Jakarta Composite	Indonesia	2,652.478 Nov 5	0 (0.00%)	Components, More
^KLSE	KLSE Composite	Malaysia	1,384.73 Nov 5	12.75 (0.91%)	Components, More
^N225	Nikkei 225	Japan	16,254.59 8:34AM SGT	14.33 (0.09%)	More
^NZ50	NZX 50	New Zealand	4,128.883 8:34AM SGT	12.320 (0.30%)	Components, More
^STI	Straits Times	Singapore	3,670.18 Nov 5	0.00 (0.00%)	Components, More
^KS11	Seoul Composite	South Korea	2,028.64 8:54AM SGT	12.88 (0.64%)	Components, More
^TWII	Taiwan Weighted	Taiwan	9,308.60 Nov 5	0.00 (0.00%)	More

 

STOCKS NEWS ASIA-Bank stocks stabilise after sell-off



Asian stock markets mostly rebounded on Tuesday as investors bought back some financial stocks such as Australia's Westpac Banking Group following the recent drubbing fuelled by credit fears.

Citigroup's bombshell that it faced as much as $11 billion more in credit losses and fears that there will be more casualties from the U.S. subprime crisis had knocked Asian markets and Wall Street lower on Monday.

"Japanese stocks have pretty much priced in the Citi news during yesterday's session," said Kazuhiro Takahashi, general manager at the equity marketing department at Daiwa Securities SMBC.

At 0033 GMT, Tokyo's Nikkei average <.N225> was little changed, steadying after Monday's 1.5 percent slide to a seven-week closing low, while MSCI's measure of other Asia Pacific stocks <.MIAPJ0000PUS> climbed 0.5 percent.

The MSCI index had slid 2.1 percent to a 1-½ week closing low in the previous session and was down about 5 percent from a life high set on Nov. 1.

South Korea's benchmark KOSPI <.KS11> gained 0.7 percent and Australia's key S&P/ASX 200 index <.AXJO> climbed nearly 1 percent.

Investors bought Westpac Banking Group , driving the stock up 1.1 percent. Australia's top investment bank Macquarie Group rose 0.4 percent, while Japan's Mitsubishi UFG <8306.T> and Resona Holdings <8308.T> both gained more than 1 percent.

But South Korea's top lender Kookmin Bank <060000.KS> eased 0.5 percent and Shinhan Financial Group <05550.KS> shed 1.1 percent, suggesting investors were still cautious about the financial sector.

Hyundai Steel <004020.KS> jumped 3.6 percent after the firm posted on Monday a 4.2 percent rise in third-quarter profit from a year ago.

 

Today may be an up day for the STI... 

 

Singapore share prices fell 1.2 per cent on Friday as fresh jitters sparked by the US sub-prime credit crisis rattled markets in the Asia Pacific region. Investors sold financial shares after the world's biggest bank Citigroup revealed additional writedowns of up to US$11 billion arising from sub-prime-related investments and announced the resignation of its chief executive Charles Prince. The Straits Times Index dropped 45.14 points to 3,670.18 on volume of 2.34 billion shares worth $2.40 billion.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index plunged 5 per cent - the largest one-day fall in percentage terms since Sept 12, 2001, the day after the terrorist attacks in the US. Investors in the Hong Kong market were reacting to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's remarks over the weekend, dampening hopes that a plan announced in August to allow mainland Chinese to buy Hong Kong stocks would be approved by Beijing in the near future.

 

morebloody days to come for this week.

 

What a bloody Monday.
What a way to shake off Monday blue...

Name	Prev	Last	+/-	%	High	Low
All-S Equities Com	1289.15	1256.93	-32.22	-2.5	1291.17	1256.90
All-S Equities Cons	646.72	628.62	-18.10	-2.8	650.33	625.79
All-S Equities Fin	2558.28	2520.63	-37.65	-1.5	2560.78	2496.08
All-S Equities Hotels	1498.14	1490.12	-8.02	-0.5	1501.24	1485.39
All-S Equities Mfg	1552.76	1534.06	-18.70	-1.2	1557.52	1531.94
All-S Equities MultiI	2866.95	2831.10	-35.85	-1.2	2882.78	2831.10
All-S Equities Prop	1521.45	1485.94	-35.51	-2.3	1515.82	1477.69
All-S Equities TSC	1863.02	1842.46	-20.56	-1.1	1868.49	1832.26
All-SingEquities	1023.44	1008.55	-14.89	-1.4	1023.98	1004.76
BT-SRI	1926.18	1888.24	-37.94	-2.0	1928.05	1878.07
SingEquities Elect	106.92	108.90	+1.98	+1.9	110.16	107.68
SingEquities Foreign	384.25	372.14	-12.11	-3.1	382.45	369.33
SingEquities Mainbd	193.10	189.87	-3.23	-1.7	193.05	189.14
Straits Times Index	3715.32	3670.18	-45.14	-1.2	3716.27	3635.18
UOB Sesdaq	233.24	225.45	-7.79	-3.3	234.22	225.14

 

Hang Seng is DOWN 5.01% or 1526.02 pts.

Asia/Pacific			Last Trade	Change	Related Info
^AORD	All Ordinaries	Australia	6,620.100 1:10PM SGT	106.600 (1.58%)	Components, More
^SSEC	Shanghai Composite	China	5,634.452 3:00PM SGT	143.357 (2.48%)	Components, More
^HSI	Hang Seng	Hong Kong	28,942.32 4:37PM SGT	1,526.02 (5.01%)	Components, More
^BSESN	BSE 30	India	19,637.29 4:37PM SGT	338.94 (1.70%)	More
^JKSE	Jakarta Composite	Indonesia	2,645.97 4:52PM SGT	64.647 (2.38%)	Components, More
^KLSE	KLSE Composite	Malaysia	1,397.48 Nov 2	11.68 (0.83%)	Components, More
^N225	Nikkei 225	Japan	16,268.92 3:00PM SGT	248.56 (1.50%)	More
^NZ50	NZX 50	New Zealand	4,141.203 12:31PM SGT	12.922 (0.31%)	Components, More
^STI	Straits Times	Singapore	3,656.01 4:52PM SGT	59.31 (1.60%)	Components, More
^KS11	Seoul Composite	South Korea	2,015.76 2:02PM SGT	3.58 (0.18%)	Components, More
^TWII	Taiwan Weighted	Taiwan	9,308.60 1:46PM SGT	35.51 (0.38%)	More

 

I don't think it depend on the mark now.
It depend on when DJ stop announcing shocking finance credit news, and investors' confidence stop getting hit.

 

when it hits the 3600 mark

 

When is it going to recover?

 

Down almost 2%...

 

One word to describe the market - OUCH !

 

 

Best to stay out as I think the market will be down for at least 1 week.

 

GLOBAL MARKETS-Shares fall as credit worries linger, dollar weak



Asian stocks eased on Monday with financial shares extending their slide as persistent credit worries offset a positive U.S. employment report, which showed twice as many jobs as expected were added last month.

Investors scurried to the relative safety of government bonds, driving yields lower, and pinned the dollar near a record low versus the euro on worries about losses at big U.S. financial firms.

U.S. banking giant Citigroup said it may suffer an $11 billion write-down for subprime losses and that its Chairman and Chief Executive Charles Prince had resigned. [ID:nN04205238] "That is why the market is very dubious today. Everyone is focusing on what is going to happen to Citigroup tonight (in U.S.

trade)," said Juliana Roadley, market analyst at CommSec in Sydney.

The announcement came just five days after Merrill Lynch ousted its own chief executive, Stanley O'Neal, following an $8.4 billion write-down.

Both gold and oil took a breather after their recent surges, with bullion trading near $800 an ounce, just off Friday's peak of $807.70. U.S. crude was at $95.03 a barrel, within sight of a record high $96.24 set on Thursday.

At 0223 GMT, Tokyo's Nikkei average <.N225> had fallen 0.9 percent while MSCI's measure of other Asia Pacific stocks <.MIAPJ0000PUS> declined 0.4 percent.

The MSCI index slipped 0.7 percent last week after losing grip of a record high set on Nov. 1 following a widely expected U.S. interest rate cut.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index <.HSI> was among the biggest losers in the region, shedding nearly 1 percent, further pressured by expectations of a delay to a highly anticipated plan to will allow mainland investors to trade directly in the city's stocks.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told reporters during a trip to Uzbekistan that China needed new laws to regulate the outflow of funds to avoid a sudden shock to its stock market.

[ID:nHKG273784] FINANCIALS HIT AGAIN Investors continued to sell financials on worries that banks may face further losses from exposure to U.S. subprime mortgage-related assets.

Japan's top bank Mitsubishi UFJ <8306.T>, Australia's newly listed Macquarie Group and South Korea's Kookmin Bank <060000.KS> all fell more than 2 percent.

MSCI's index of financial stocks in the region <.MIAP0FN00PUS> slid 0.8 percent, outpacing declines in the wider market.

Adding to the gloom were concerns about Pakistan, which is bracing for protests against emergency rule. [ID:nL03284462] But bucking the weaker trend, energy firms shone as investors bet that high crude oil prices will boost their profits.

INPEX Holdings <1605.T> climbed 2.4 percent, Australia's Woodside Petroleum gained 0.9 percent and Santos added 3.2 percent.

Shares in PetroChina <601857.SS>, the world's second-largest oil producer, made a booming debut in the Shanghai stock exchange, tripling in value to 48.62 yuan at one stage. It's Hong Kong-listed shares <0857.HK>, however, eased 0.7 percent.

Citigroup <8710.T> also made a positive debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange despite the write-down, rising about 5 percent.

[ID:nT161036] On Wall Street, stocks eked out a small gain on Friday following the jobs data, pushing the blue-chip Dow <.DJI> and technology-laden Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> modestly higher.

The U.S. Labor Department said the world's biggest economy added 166,000 non-farm jobs in October.

DOLLAR DEFENSIVE The dollar wallowed near record lows versus the euro and a basket of currencies despite the upbeat jobs data as investors took their cue from losses in major U.S. financial firms, struggling from the credit market problems.

 

STI is climbing back to green.
Maybe in anticipation for HSI opening.

 

Immediate outlook: The Straits Times Index?s (STI) ended the week at 3,715.32, 56.2pts or 1.5% lower week-on-week. Last week, we expected the index to retest the minor resistance at 3,850-3,867 and it did. However, sellers were stronger at those levels. The previous week?s support was at 3,660. There is a struggle for power among the bulls and bears between 3,660 and 3,850. A breakout on either side would signal where the market is headed in the immediate term. Hence, for the upcoming week, expect the index to trade sideways between those levels. Trade cautiously.

Medium-term outlook (2-6 months): The index is still testing the LT middle band resistance at 3,780-3,850 as the bulls are not giving up so easily. The index?s bearish Evening Star pattern is still in play. This pattern usually signifies a top in the current trend. Indicators have stayed mixed at the moment. However, a break above the 3,906 level would nullify this bearish pattern. The bulls would likely try to push past the 3,906 level and try to lift the index towards the 4,015-4,226 levels. The strong support for the index can now be found around the 3,660-3,688 support, followed by 3,500.