Market Summary 23 March 2013

Singapore's shares ended the week on a negative note, on profit-taking spurred by continued worries over Cyprus' failure to cobble together a bailout deal.

The 30-share Straits Times Index ended Friday down 9.08 points, or 0.3%, at 3258.57 after spending much of the session wavering between positive and negative territories. For the week, the index was down 0.8%.

"It's going to continue to be stuck in a range until close to the next reporting season," which is in late April and May, said Roger Tan, CEO at SIAS Research. "Some profit-taking is taking place while investors look for a more attractive re-entry point," he said. "Europe will continue to be an excuse for investors to either take profit off the table or wait for markets to go down lower to buy." "The Cyprus issues just show European woes are not over. It's more stable but it's not over. But because fundamentals are still okay for the rest of the world, I think markets will still go up the rest of the year," Mr. Tan added.

Volume traded was 5.52 billion shares valued at S$1.41 billion. In the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 1.4 to one.

Index heavyweight SingTel slid 1.4% to S$3.55, retracing some of Thursday's 3.5% gain.

Genting Hong Kong ended flat at US$0.455 after reporting 2012 net profit rose 8.9% from a year earlier to US$198.4 million. CIMB said the results of Genting Hong Kong's three units, Star Cruises, Resorts World Manila and Norwegian Cruise Lines, were in line with its expectations operationally, but lower than expected interest costs boosted the bottom line above its expectations.

Market Summary 15 March 2013

Singapore shares ended off their early highs Friday, as a boost from data showing U.S. jobless benefit claims unexpectedly fell last week faded amid a selloff in property counters.

"Any sign that the number one economy in the world is starting to fire again gives traders and everyone else an opportunity to say 'why not [enter the market]?'," said Song Seng Wun, head of research at CIMB. But he noted that "some people are becoming a little more nervous from a technical standpoint. Resistance levels are more challenging."

The 30-share Straits Times Index ended up 6.55 points, or 0.2%, at 3286.05 but well off its intraday high of 3305.77, as the index failed once again to hold above resistance at 3300. The index ended down 0.1% for the week.

Volume surged to 7.19 billion shares valued at S$2.89 billion compared with Thursday's 5.96 billion shares valued at S$1.42 billion.

Property stocks were hit by a double whammy of data showing the city-state's February private home sales slumped 65% from the previous month and as property counters sold off in the Hong Kong market on expectations of government tightening measures.

The Lunar New Year holiday and recent cooling measures likely damped the Singapore sales data, Religare Capital said in a note. "Recent news already points toward a pickup in launch activity again in March, and it might turn out to be another strong month for sales," it said. "Should sales continue to stay at these elevated levels, we believe that the government will act again to clamp down on demand."

CapitaLand dropped 4.2% to S$3.40, City Developments fell 3.7% to S$10.76 and Hongkong Land shed 3.3% to US$7.01.

Olam dropped 3.0% to S$1.625 after a large block of shares changed hands in late trade. During the session, the stock touched a high of S$1.73, its highest level since short seller Muddy Waters issued a critical report on the company in mid-November.

Wilmar ended down 1.5% at S$3.32, also weighed by a large block of shares changing hands in late trade.

Helping to support the index, the heavily weighted banks gained, with UOB, OCBC and DBS tacking on 1.0%-1.8%.

Market Summary 9 March 2013

Singapore's shares took a breather Friday as markets likely thought it prudent to lock small gains after a steep rise over the previous two days.

The 30-share Straits Times Index closed 0.3%, or 9.01 points, lower, at 3,289.53 after breaching the 3,300 psychological barrier briefly for the first time since Feb. 21. Volumes were lower at 3.51 billion shares compared with 4.3 billion shares that changed hands on Thursday. Losers outnumbered gainers 266 to 181.

Still, the benchmark ended the week with a 0.6% gain.

Elsewhere in the region, Japanese stocks climbed for the seventh successive session to touch a fresh multiyear high as the yen fell against the U.S. dollar on anticipation of aggressive monetary policy easing.

Asian markets were also waiting for China's monthly slew of economic data over the weekend. China will deliver data on inflation, industrial output and retail sales, which prompted some traders to refrain from taking fresh bets going into the weekend.

Property stocks were among the poor performers Friday amid recent measures by China and Singapore to curb rocketing real estate prices. CapitaLand shed 2.9% to close at S$3.62 while City Developments was down 1.8% to S$11.20, forming the worst performers among benchmark stocks.

Commodity stocks were mixed with Golden Agri-Resources down 0.8% to S$0.605 and Wilmar International down 1.2% to S$3.43. However, Noble Group eked out a 0.4% gain to close at S$1.18.

Rig builders gained Friday on hopes that a global economic recovery may spur investments in exploration and production. Sembcorp Marine added 0.7% to close at S$4.54 while its parent Sembcorp Industries was up 0.6% at S$5.22. Keppel Corp. gained 0.6% to S$11.85.