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The Business Times Online Edition - Singapore

Total news: 291
Last news: January 5, 2009 22:00:00

THERE was no let-up in volatility this week, particularly for the major indices. Benchmarks in the US, Japan and Hong Kong rose and fell as much as 5 per cent per day, confounding anyone who thought markets would have settled down by now to the business of earnings and the economy. - [Read more]

WHEN almost all the days top 20 gainers are structured put warrants - instruments that rise in value in a falling market - you know it hasnt been a good day for the bulls. - [Read more]

EXPECTATIONS of how Wall Street might perform on Wednesday and movements in Hong Kongs Hang Seng Index yesterday continued to set the direction for a local market that for the moment appears bereft of its own ideas and is almost wholly reliant on house traders, program trades and intraday players for its liquidity. - [Read more]

PERHAPS not surprisingly, Mondays rise in the Straits Times Index (STI) proved short- lived. The benchmark yesterday surrendered all of Mondays 21-point gain when it collapsed 78.06 points or more than 4 per cent to 1,806.96, as traders turned their attention back to the slowing economy and lower earnings. - [Read more]

STOCKS here started the week higher yesterday amid a broad rise in Asian equity markets, boosted by Chinas massive stimulus plan to spur economic growth. The Straits Times Index (STI) finished 21.53 points or 1.2 per cent higher at 1,885.02, after swinging between gains and losses earlier in the day. - [Read more]

FEAR manifests itself in the stock market in two and only two ways. First is fear of losing money, which emerges when prices are plummeting and all mayhem is breaking loose, as was the case for most of last month. This stage is characterised by plenty of hand- wringing as investors agonise over whether to sell, or cut losses, or pay up their margin calls or, in the case of die-hard believers, to try and ride out the plunges and hope that one day theyll be in the black again. - [Read more]

THIS was a week in which there was a clear buy in anticipation, sell on news element - though in the case of Singapore Airlines, the reverse probably held true. - [Read more]

AS WE speculated would be the case in yesterdays column, investors on Wall Street sold on Wednesday after news of a Democratic victory in the US presidential election, the resultant 5 per cent slump in US benchmarks reverberating around this part of the world yesterday. - [Read more]

WALL Streets Tuesday rally in anticipation of a Democrat victory in the US presidential election spilled over here yesterday after the victory was confirmed, with the Straits Times Index rising 39.13 points to 1,868.82 on the back of a 3.2 per cent gain in Hong Kongs Hang Seng Index and a 4.4 per cent rise in Japans Nikkei Average. - [Read more]

THE oversold bounce in the Straits Times Index that started last Tuesday continued for a fourth day out of five yesterday, this time taking the benchmark up 89.55 points to 1,883.75 and bringing its gain since last Tuesday to a total of 283 points or 18 per cent. - [Read more]

ELSEWHERE in this edition (see Hock Lock Siew column) the recommendation is made that investors interests would be better served if brokers either supplemented their one-year price targets with three-month and six-month calls, or ceased giving one-year targets altogether. - [Read more]

THE past week provided the perfect illustration of something thats often sorely lacking in the stock market. - [Read more]

TRADERS yesterday clearly positioned themselves for a large Wall Street rally - the Straits Times Index rose 130.71 points to 1,801.91 in line with a 9 per cent jump in Japans Nikkei and a 13 per cent rally in Hong Kongs Hang Seng Index. - [Read more]

THE Straits Times Index yesterday swung wildly in tandem with Hong Kongs Hang Seng Index, the US futures market and Europes volatile opening, eventually finishing with a net 4.71-point gain at 1,671.20 - but not before it surrendered a 65-point gain in the morning. - [Read more]

A REVERSAL in Hong Kong and Japan yesterday helped the local stock market avoid another bloodbath. But although the Straits Times Index (STI) finished 66.21 points higher at 1,666.49, the broad market only managed 115 rises versus 326 falls, excluding warrants and index stocks. - [Read more]

STOCK investors everywhere face another highly turbulent week ahead, with market movements here likely to be influenced by an expected cut in US interest rates, as well as local corporate earnings reports and official data on jobs growth. - [Read more]

THE Straits Times Index (STI) took another beating yesterday in the wake of a Wednesday Wall Street sell-off that spread throughout the region and dragged all markets lower. - [Read more]

IT LOOKS very much that investors are suddenly waking up to the fact that with a wrenching global slowdown ahead, earnings everywhere will be hit - from Wall Street to Wellington, stock markets yesterday tumbled, barely days after massive efforts by governments and central banks to kick-start gridlocked credit markets to avert a global financial crash. - [Read more]

SELL into strength has been the preferred approach of the majority of players over the past nine to 10 months, and so it was again yesterday, when the Straits Times Index (STI) bounced up by more than 50 points in the morning - [Read more]

AS RECENTLY as a month ago, analysts were calling a buy on China steel maker Ferrochina, a company whose shares are now suspended from trading because of financial problems brought on by the credit crunch. Meanwhile, in its Oct 17 Global Investment Strategy, BCA Research said a bottom in stock markets may have been reached and recommended clients get ready to increase equity weightings. - [Read more]