STI MARKET REVIEW for wednesday

STI MARKET REVIEW

Singaporeshares opened higher on Wednesday. At 9.01am, the benchmark Straits Times Index was up 26.68 points, or 0.94 per cent, at 2,868.62 and ended 26.80 points or 0.94% higher to 2868.74. STI came off from its intra- day peak of 2886.85 and low of 2855.78. Top LosersScrip NameCMP%changeNOBLE0.45-2.17GOLDEN
AGRI-RES0.305-1.61STARHUB3.54-0.56DBS17.43-0.34SIA ENGINEERING3.64-0.27Singapore stocks traded lhigher at noon on Wednesday. STI gains 0.88% to 2,867.00 at midday

LOCAL BOURSE

For those holding out for a roll back of property curbs after an election victory by Singapore's ruling party, the wait - may be longer than anticipated. The People's Action Party's emphatic win at Friday's polls won't be enough to reverse measures put in place as far back as 2009. The pace of decline in the city's home prices need to double the 6.7% drop from the peak two years ago before any of the restrictions will be eased.

Singapore shares open 27 points lower on Monday

THE Singapore bourse opened lower with the benchmark Straits Times Index falling 27.22 points to 2,836.59 as at 9.01 am on Monday.

Some 48 million shares worth S$89 million were traded with 32 counters up and 117 down.

US stock indices fell last Friday after a mixed August jobs report which provided little clarity on when the US Federal Reserve will raise short-term interest rates. Wall Street will be closed on Monday because of the Labor Day long weekend.

Stocks to watch: SembMarine, Singtel, Chinese Global Investors

THE following stocks had announcements that could affect trading activity on Tuesday:

Sembcorp Marine has clinched a more than US$1 billion engineering, procurement and construction contract to build three topsides for the Culzean Field development in the North Sea, the rig builder announced early Tuesday.

The contract amount, which includes long lead items, is for building a central processing facility, two connecting bridges, a wellhead platform and utilities and living quarters platform for Maersk Oil North Sea UK.

SembMarine shares closed at S$2.39 on Monday.

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

The 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."

Ringgit drops to 17-year low as falling Brent crude dims outlook

The ringgit weakened to a 17-year low and led declines in Asia as falling oil prices worsened Malaysia's export outlook amid an emerging-market selloff.

[KUALA LUMPUR] The ringgit weakened to a 17-year low and led declines in Asia as falling oil prices worsened Malaysia's export outlook amid an emerging-market selloff.

The currency has slumped 8.2 per cent this month in the worst developing-nation performance after Russia's ruble. Figures due Friday may show a further decline in Malaysia's foreign-exchange reserves, reducing the central bank's ability to stem the ringgit's descent. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index of shares headed for its lowest close in six years and the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index dropped to a three-year low after a private gauge of Chinese manufacturing trailed estimates.

"The decline in commodity prices such as oil and the soft growth in emerging markets such as China is renewing worries over global deflationary pressures," said Sim Moh Siong, a currency strategist at Bank of Singapore Ltd in the city-state. "That's weighing on the ringgit." The currency fell 0.7 per cent on Friday and 2.1 per cent for the week to 4.1667 a dollar as of 11:06 am in Kuala Lumpur. The ringgit dropped to as low as 4.1700 earlier, the weakest since August 1998, and is down 16 per cent this year.

AUM in Singapore up 30% to S$2.4 trillion in 2014: MAS

Singapore's assets under management (AUM) grew by 30 per cent year-on-year to S$2.4 trillion in 2014, said the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Thursday.

Referring to the increase as "a strong showing", MAS said the robust growth was derived largely from "positive asset inflows arising from Asia's growth dynamism and Singapore's position as a pan-Asian asset management hub".

It added that there was a net increase of 38 registered and licensed fund managers, bringing the total number of fund managers registered and licensed with MAS to 591. These findings are from MAS's annual survey of the Singapore asset management industry. Its latest report is for the year ending December 31, 2014.

Singapore shares open lower on Friday into sub-3,000 region

SINGAPORE share prices broke through the psychological 3,000-point support level - as many had feared it will - to 2,972.05 by 9.13am on Friday.

This was a 1.25 per cent or 37.73-point drop from Thursday's close, following declines in the United States and Asia. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 hit a more than six-month low on Thursday, closing in negative territory for the year. It lost 43.88 points (2.11 per cent) to 2,035.73. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 358.04 points (2.06 per cent) to 16,990.69 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 141.56 points (2.82 per cent) to 4,877.49.

US crude edged higher after earlier hitting its lowest since March 2009, while Brent dropped 2.3 per cent to hit its lowest since January.

Stocks to watch: Singtel, Ezra

THE following stocks could see increased trading on Wednesday following material announcements before the beginning of trading.

Telco Singtel announced its US$810 million purchase of cyber security firm Trustwave Holdings.

Offshore play Ezra Holdings announced a 99 per cent fall in net profit to US$138,000 from US$19.6 million for its second quarter ended Feb 28, 2015. Revenue was stable but costs had gone up. Some US$4.6 million of net profit was due to non-controlling interests.

Singapore's STI opens flat ahead of BoJ rate decision

THE Straits Times Index (STI) was down 0.33 point, or 0.01 per cent, to 3,465.29 points at 9.10am on Wednesday. This was after US stocks fell overnight, and ahead of a rate decision by the Bank of Japan.

Some 219.2 million shares were traded with a value of S$74.4 million. Gainers outnumbered losers 125 to 47.

Top stocks by value traded were blue chips DBS, UOB, Singtel, Keppel Corp and ComfortDelGro.

SGX daily share trading down by modest 0.2% in March

Daily share trading activity on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) eased in March from year-ago levels, while derivatives trading continued to grow.

The securities daily average value (SDAV) slipped by 0.2 per cent year-on-year to S$1.1 billion in March, according to data by SGX. The average traded volume of securities experienced a sharper fall, by 38.4 per cent, to 1.4 billion shares.

Turnover velocity, a measurement that is closely tracked by SGX and that reflects how often a share is traded on average, fell to 37 per cent from 40 per cent a year earlier.

The derivatives market had more excitement. Average daily trading volume in derivatives grew 46.2 per cent year-on-year in March to 678,126 contracts. A total of 3.3 million open-interest positions were left overnight in March, a 5 per cent year-on-year improvement.

The FTSE China A50 Index futures were a key contributor to growth, with March's 7 million traded contracts more than double the year-ago 2.5 million volume.

Stocks to watch: EMAS Offshore, KTL Global, Stratech, Ellipsiz

STOCKS to look out for on Tuesday early trading could include EMAS Offshore, KTL Global, Stratech and Ellipsiz.

EMAS Offshore Limited reported on Tuesday morning a net profit of US$9.7 million in the second quarter ended Feb 28, from US$4 million in the same quarter last year, thanks to foreign exchange gains and gain on disposal of an anchor handling tug (AHT). But revenue posted by the offshore marine company fell 10 per cent year on year to US$60.9 million due to weakness in both the shallow water anchor handling, towing and supply vessels (AHTS) and shallow water platform support vessels (PSV) segments.

KTL Global gave corporate updates following a review of its businesses. These include streamlining its internal and operating efficiencies that will involve a significant relocation of operations from Singapore to Johor, scaling up the value chain, deepening its presence in existing markets and entering new ones.

The Stratech Group, the new listing entity that emerged following the recently completed restructuring of Stratech Systems, said on Monday that it is eyeing overseas markets to drive growth. The group, which recently clinched a FOD (foreign object and debris) detection system contract for Hong Kong International Airport, also singled out the US as a potential growth market.

Trading interest could still continue for semiconductor testing firm Ellipsiz Ltd, which disclosed on Monday that its chief executive officer sold most of his stake to David Lum Kok Seng, the managing director of construction firm Lum Chang Holdings. The latter has become the company's largest shareholder with a 20.44 per cent stake; the stake of Ellipsiz CEO Chan Wai Leong fell from 19.79 per cent to 1.7 per cent.