Archive for April, 2008
Friday, April 25th, 2008
Another week passed...
Seems like the older you get, the faster time passes. Anybody who experienced this phenomenon? I was walking home from work today and I felt a sense of urgency to do what needs to be done before time slips through my palm like sand.
Time and tide waits for no man, so hurry up and do what you need to do. Prioritize your most important tasks first so that they will be done first :)
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Thursday, April 24th, 2008
Keppel Corp announced a 5% rise in quarterly profit. As the market leader in the offshore and marine industry, this is a sign that that industry is holding up quite well thus far.
Keppel Land announced a -3% fall in quarterly profit. This is actually quite encouraging since it was thought that the property market had an exceptionally poor 1Q08.
Unsurprisingly, Osim registered a loss of -S$13.4m largely because it does most of its sales during the 4Q holiday season, and also due to its exposure to the weakening US dollar and retail market. There was a silver lining in that it managed to reduce its quarterly loss by 24%.
I also noticed that the construction companies have clinched a lot of contracts during 1QFY2008.
Pan United:
Secured 5 ready-mixed concrete supply contracts worth a total of S$124.5m, especially for the MRT downtown line stage 1.
Yongnam:
Secured its 1st major contract win in India via a S$70m sub-contract to erect the roof structural steelwork for the Delhi International Airport Terminal 3 Building.
Secured 2 construction contracts worth a total of S$131.7m with the Marina Bay Sands IR.
BBR:
Secured a S$6m contract with LTA to upgrade its vehicular bridges at 7 locations.
Secured a S$95.3m contract with Ascendas to build an Office Tower Block at the International Business Park in Jurong East.
Secured 2 contracts worth S$8m for piling works on a 5-storey Youth Community Building in Orchard and a 10-storey Condominium in Hillview.
KSH:
Secured 4 contracts worth a total of S$354.3m to construct 3 luxury condominium projects and 1 office building.
LKH:
Secured S$346m contract with Resorts World Sentosa for the construction of Hard Rock Hotel, the ballroom and festive walk at Sentosa.
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Thursday, April 24th, 2008
No wonder CSC and YN suddenly revived from inactivity.
There are two announcements related to these two companies:
1.
Yongnam and KTC secured a S$81.4 million contract for Marina Bay Sands IR to design, supply, install and remove temporary decking, steeling waling, strutting and excavation works. This is a 70% (YN) - 30% KTC joint venture for the South podium at the IR. They stated that this contract needs to work 24/7 basis to deliver the objectives within a tight timeline.
nuffnang_bid_sing = "6ab2c870667e6fd25a550454f47307af";
2.
CSC won a contract in the energy related industry worth S$47 million. This contract is to do foundation works for Norway's Renewable Energy corporation ASA (REC) to build the largest fully integrated solar manufacturing complex here. Contract is for a period of 9 mths.
I managed to sell off 60% of my stake on CSC today too. Going to pare of my holdings for YN and CSC, join me? :)
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Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
This report was compiled by Lim & Tan Securities this morning:
Business Times’ latest poll shows 3 out of 4 fund managers (2 fundamentals-based: Mark Mobius of Templeton, and Jim McCaughan of Principal Global, and 1 chartist, Paul Nesbitt of Fortis) believe the worst may be over for the equity markets. (The “bear”, Chris Caspar of Russel Investments, while warning of a retest of recent lows, expects a V shaped economic recovery in the US, which will be positive for Asian stock markets.)
Straits Times quoted a few market commentators as saying GIC’s views (reported yesterday) were too gloomy, eg the UBS economist noted that unemployment rate in the US hit a post-war high of 10.8% in Dec ’82 vs 5% today.
Merrill Lynch, one of the worst hit during the current credit crunch, yesterday raised US$9.55 bln selling unsecured notes (with yields more than 300 basis points above treasuries of similar maturities) and perpetual preferred shares yielding 8.625%. This brings the total raised by financial institutions to US$28 bln in the past 2 days, which shows there is ample cash on the sidelines.
As a result of the above, the world’s largest banks and securities firms have so far raised US$194 bln after reporting more than US$290 bln in losses and write-downs. This should provide much comfort to investors around the world.
Talking of decisive measures to deal with the current crisis, we are reminded of the HK Monetary Authority’s (HKMA) master stroke during the Asian Crisis to protect the HK$ and boost market confidence, in setting up the Tracker Fund to mop up stakes in the top blue chip stocks listed on the HK Exchange.
Everything moves in cycles after all.
And HKMA has been laughing all the way to the bank since the stupendous recovery of the HK stock market.
One wonders if the US Treasury will some day in the not-too-distant future, set up a monster fund to mop up the delinquent mortgages in the US, to stem further deterioration of the housing market, the root cause of the current crisis.
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Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
I've been saying for the past few months that this round of corporate results, especially those of the bigger companies, will be vital to determine the direction in which the market will move in 2H2008.
At present, some companies have already announced their results, and I'm pleased to say that they have been encouraging so far.
For the large caps:
SPC announced a -12% fall in quarterly profit. This is fairly reasonable and expected given rising oil prices and the weakening USD.
SPH announced a -7% fall in quarterly profit, but this was mostly due to a significant decrease in investment income. Otherwise, its profits would have increased 36% due to increased contribution from its property development.
SGX announced a surprising 14% rise in profit despite the difficult market conditions.
Amongst my holdings, UIS Securities and China XLX have announced their results.
UIS announced a -59% fall in quarterly profit, but this was expected given the poor market conditions over the past few months. Importantly, its NAV has managed to stay at $1.83, and this will provide the support for its share price.
China XLX announced a surprising 42% increase in quarterly profit - which is probably why its share price has been on the rise recently, even recording a 10.4% today.
Conclusion:
The upcoming corporate results of the financial banks and larger property stocks will play a huge factor in determining the direction of the market. I will provide more updates as and when the results are released.
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