Market Summary 8th December 2012

Singapore's shares ended higher Friday amid positive cues from Wall Street as initial U.S. weekly jobless-benefit claims decreased.

The 30-share Straits Times Index ended up 28.91 points, or 0.9%, at 3107.11, after touching an intraday high of 3110.51, within spitting distance of its 3110.86 year-to-date high. The index is up 1.2% for the week; it has risen in 12 of the last 15 sessions.

"Traders anticipated some good numbers out of the Chinese economy this weekend. The local market was also buoyed by better-than-expected U.S. jobless claims last night," said Justin Harper, market strategist at IG Markets Singapore, in a note, citing China's retail sales and industrial production as among the data due Sunday. "For this bullish undertone to spark life into an end-of-year rally, we will need to see more progress on U.S. fiscal cliff talks very soon. And a strong read for tonight's non-farm payrolls report would help, once the Superstorm Sandy effect is factored in," he added.

Volume ticked up slightly from Thursday, with 1.95 billion shares valued at S$1.51 billion changing hands.

Sembcorp Marine gained 2.0% to S$4.51 after landing a contract worth US$434 million to construct two jack-up rigs for Mexico's Integradora de Servicios Petroleros Oro Negro, with delivery scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2013 and the first quarter of 2014. "(The pricing is) slightly higher than what we expected, but for the early delivery, it's in line with expectations. I think the margins on these two rigs will be pretty good," an analyst said, noting Oro Negro is a new client.

Hongkong Land rose 2.4% to US$6.76. Macquarie added the stock to its "Marquee Ideas" high-conviction Buy list. Other property plays with China exposure also rose, with CapitaLand adding 3.4% to S$3.69. "There was a boost for property stocks with links to China, such as CapitaLand, after the Chinese government said urbanisation would be a key theme for the next decade," Mr. Harper said.

Olam received a respite from its recent declines, ending up 0.7% at S$1.46, but it remains down 16.1% since Nov. 19, when negative comments from short seller Muddy Waters' founder Carson Block first surfaced. Macquarie downgraded Olam to Neutral from Outperform. "Muddy Waters' call for insolvency is a stretch. But we must accept that Olam's transformation projects are taking longer than we expected to come through," the house said in a note.

Singapore Press Holdings was the worst-performing STI component, shedding 4.1%, or 17 Singapore cents, to S$4.01 as it went ex-dividend for its planned 17-cent dividend payment. UOB KayHian said its monthly page-count monitor of SPH's flagship Straits Times suggests decent advertising-spend growth of 3%-5% on year in September-November. But the house kept a Hold call as it expects the muted advertising revenue growth to cap any gains.