Friday, August 28, 2015

Hot stock: Olam surges 13% on Mitsubishi deal

SHARES of Olam International soared almost 13 per cent on Friday morning after Mitsubishi Corp agreed to buy a 20 per cent stake in the Singapore commodity trader.
At 09.12am, Olam was trading at around S$2.15 a share, up 24 Singapore cents, or 12.57 per cent. Volume was light, around one million shares.

olam.jpgShortly after 1am on Friday, Olam said it would issue 332.7 million new shares for S$915 million to Mitsubishi, one of Japan's biggest trading houses. The Tokyo-based company is also acquiring an 8 per cent stake in the agriculture firm for S$615 million from Kewalram Chanrai Group, which is Olam's second-largest shareholder after Temasek Holdings.
Olam's management is currently having on Friday morning a briefing with analysts and the media.

Hot stock: Olam deal at premium sends Noble Group toward monthly advance

Noble Group Ltd, the commodities trader criticised over its accounting methods, climbed for a second day, extending its first monthly advance since November, after Mitsubishi Corp agreed to pay a premium for a stake in rival Olam International Ltd.
 
commodity tradeNoble jumped 5.8 per cent to 54.5 Singapore cents as of 10:54 am in the city state, heading for a 19 per cent advance this month. The shares slumped in the past eight months amid a commodities rout and after Iceberg Research questioned the company's accounting practices in a report published in mid- February.

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Broker's take: Wilmar skating on thin ice, says research house

RELIGARE Institutional Research said on Thursday that Singapore-headquartered agribusiness group Wilmar International is skating on thin ice, and initiated coverage on it with a "sell" call and a target price of S$2.27.

Wilmar's intense capital expenditure programme (US$6.5 billion over last five years) has delivered poor returns, Religare says.

Hot stock: Olam jumps by most in 6 years before halting shares from trade

[SINGAPORE] Olam International surged by the most in six years in Singapore before the commodity trading company halted its shares from trade.

Olam, controlled by Singapore's state-investment company, requested the halt pending an announcement, it said on Thursday in a statement without further detail. Spokeswoman Chow Hung Hoeng couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

top stocks sgxThe company, which began with cashew operations in Nigeria in 1989, has grown into one of the world's top re-sellers of nuts while branching out into coffee, cocoa, rice and cotton. It now grows, processes and trades 44 commodities in 65 countries, and said this month it expects to close its biggest deal to date, a US$1.3 billion acquisition of Archer-Daniels-Midland's cocoa unit by the end of the year.

Olam rose 13 per cent to S$1.91 before the halt, giving it a market value of S$4.7 billion. A close at that price would make it the biggest jump for the group since April 2009. The benchmark Straits Times Index rose two per cent as of 11:50 a.m. local time as stocks rebounded a two-week selloff.

STI climbs 2.5% at close

SINGAPORE stocks reversed course for the fourth time in four days to gain 2.5 per cent, or 72.43 points, for a 2,945.43 close on Thursday following dovish remarks by a US central banker. About 1.96 billion shares worth S$1.61 billion in total changed hands.

The most actively traded stock was Noble Group, which jumped 6.5 Singapore cents, or 14.4 per cent, to close at 51.5 Singapore cents with 137.4 million shares traded.

singapore stocksThe Big 3 banks all rose, with DBS Group Holdings adding 2.5 per cent, or 44 Singapore cents, to finish at S$18.09. OCBC Bank increased by 3.2 per cent, or 28 Singapore cents, to close at S$9.17, while United Overseas Bank headed out at S$19.75 after rising by 2 per cent or 39 Singapore cents.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Singapore stock market opens 1% down on Wall Street chaos

The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) fell 1.19 per cent, or 33.84 points, to 2,809.55 in early Tuesday (Aug 25) trade.

SINGAPORE: The Singapore stock market opened on Tuesday (Aug 25) to more selling, as rattled investors offloaded shares following a bruising day in the US stock market.
The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) fell 1.19 per cent, or 33.84 points, to 2,809.55 in early Tuesday trade. On Monday, the STI suffered its worst one-day drop in seven years, tumbling 4.3 per cent to close at 2.843.39.

 

Monday, August 24, 2015

Singapore: Shares close down 4.3% on fears over China economy

top shares near china economyThe Singapore market tumbled 4.3 per cent on Monday, with the Straits Times Index dropping 127.62 points to 2,843.39. The decline came after the blue-chip index gapped down on Monday morning, having opened at 2,915 points.

Losers overwhelmingly outnumbered gainers 522 to 50, or a dismal 10 down for every one up. Local shares were hit by deepening fears over China's economy. The Shanghai Composite dived 8.5 per cent and the Hang Seng fell 5.2 per cent.

Singapore: Shares close down 4.3% on fears over China economy

Commodities sank to the lowest level in 16 years, joining a rout in global equities and emerging-market currencies on concern that China's economic slowdown will exacerbate gluts of everything from oil to metals.

The Bloomberg Commodity Index of 22 raw materials lost as much 1.7 per cent to 86.3542 points, the lowest level since August 1999. Resources stocks from BHP Billiton Ltd to Cnooc Ltd tumbled while Brent crude fell below US$45 a barrel for the first time since 2009.

"Sentiment is extremely negative across the commodity complex," Mark Keenan, head of commodities research for Asia at Societe Generale SA in Singapore, said in an e-mail.
"Markets are plagued by concerns of oversupply."

Singapore inflation eases to -0.4% in July

WHILE Singapore's headline inflation rate eased to -0.4 per cent in July from June's -0.3 per cent, core inflation rose to 0.4 per cent last month from 0.2 per cent in June.

This is compared to private-sector expectations of a -0.2 per cent headline and 0.3 per cent core inflation reading, according to a Bloomberg poll conducted before the Department of Statistics released July's data on Monday.

sgx stocks to buy todayCore inflation excludes the costs of accommodation and private road transport. The lower headline inflation reading was mainly due to the lower cost of private road transport, said the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) in joint comments.