This week, news broke that big-name furniture and electronics retailer Courts Asia will be delisted from SGX after its acquisition by Nojima Asia Pacific, who would own 90.07% of Courts Asia, thus causing it to not fulfil the free float requirement to remain public. This comes after last month’s news that Singapore’s third largest telco, M1, will also be delisted, following its acquisition by a joint venture between Keppel Corporation and Singapore Press Holdings. Read Also: 4 Stocks This Week (M1 Acquisition) [28 September 2018] – Keppel; Keppel T&T; SPH; M1 One advantage of investing based on indices like the Straits Times Index (STI) is that it is self-regenerating. Index constituents are periodically reviewed (quarterly, in STI’s case) and reconstituted if particular stock

After ending 2018 on a bad note, the performance of the stock market in the first two months of 2019 has gave investors a reason to cheer. If you are looking to repeat the splendid performance, here are some strategies for you to consider. Investors Takeaway: 3 Strategies If You Want To Beat The Market Again By DBS Take Advantage Of Interest In S-REITs With Fed Chairman Powell re-iterating the Fed’s dovish stance to be patient on rate hikes, interest in REITs should sustain going forward. The consensus now appears to be zero rate hikes for this year as the Fed continues to monitor how the economy evolves. Previously, DBS recommended investors to focus on large cap REITs in resilient segments such as retail and industrial (warehouse and business parks). DBS likes these large cap REITs f

The US Federal Reserve has indicated that 2019 will likely see slower interest rate hikes. This comes on the back of mounting macroeconomic uncertainties, that has seen investors turn to less risky investments. This may benefit REITs in three ways: # 1 Traditionally, REITs take on a lot of debt to fund its capital-intensive property investments. Slower interest rate hikes in 2019 will ease the growing pressure on REITs, in terms of debt repayment. # 2 Markets are efficient – which means that prices of REITs would have taken into consideration that rate hikes would continue as normal. This stance of slowing down the interest rate hikes in 2019 is new information for the market, and may give REITs a boost. (Do note that most of this new information should already be priced into the markets

With the 90-day truce in the US-China trade war coming to a halfway mark, attention is now on the outcome of those talks. While the news so far appears to be indicating that the talks will end in a positive note, it is hardly a foregone conclusion. Things could still change in a swift if either party changes its mind. So, what happens if the US-China trade talks fall apart? Investors Takeaway: 3 Things To Do If US-China Trade Talks Go Wrong By DBS Stay Invested In REITs S-REITs managed to put in the second-best performance in 2H18 after healthcare. According to DBS, S-REITs should continue to garner investors’ interest as bond yields are still pressured by the Fed turning more dovish. The Federal Reserve’s previous guidance in December last year pointed to two interest rate hikes in

https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/10-things-investors-should-know-about-keppel-corporation-limiteds-latest-earnings/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/why-do-brokerages-only-provide-research-reports-for-large-companies/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/is-the-stock-market-a-battle-zone-for-you/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/mapletree-north-asia-commercial-trusts-latest-earnings-gross-revenue-up-by-19-4/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/m1-ltds-latest-result-net-profit-fell-21-4-in-q4/In this next section on investment analysis, we take a closer look at capital expenditure, frequently known as just “capex” for short. Previous articles discussed concepts such as margins, free cash flow and debt financing. Capex is a necessary spending item for companies, and helps to build up and grow the bus

https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/investment-analysis-demystified-capital-expenditure/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/is-the-stock-market-a-battle-zone-for-you/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/mapletree-north-asia-commercial-trusts-latest-earnings-gross-revenue-up-by-19-4/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/m1-ltds-latest-result-net-profit-fell-21-4-in-q4/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/3-reasons-to-review-your-investment-performance-on-a-long-term-basis/One of the common problems I see in today’s investing environment, and which I feel is getting progressively worse, is that many brokerages only cover companies which are large and established. This results in reports being published only of such companies while the bulk of the smaller, mid-sized companies are neglected. There are situations whe

https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/why-do-brokerages-only-provide-research-reports-for-large-companies/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/mapletree-north-asia-commercial-trusts-latest-earnings-gross-revenue-up-by-19-4/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/m1-ltds-latest-result-net-profit-fell-21-4-in-q4/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/3-reasons-to-review-your-investment-performance-on-a-long-term-basis/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/the-importance-of-catalysts-in-investing/The stock market is a venue for companies to raise funds to grow and expand. This serves a very useful function as capital markets exist to promote enterprise and entrepreneurship, and offer another way for companies to garner capital (other than just through loans from banks). Hence, the stock market acts as a platform for investors to

https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/why-do-brokerages-only-provide-research-reports-for-large-companies/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/is-the-stock-market-a-battle-zone-for-you/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/m1-ltds-latest-result-net-profit-fell-21-4-in-q4/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/3-reasons-to-review-your-investment-performance-on-a-long-term-basis/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/the-importance-of-catalysts-in-investing/Last Friday, Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust (SGX: RW0U), or MNACT, released its 2018/19 third-quarter earnings update. MNACT is a Singapore-based commercial REIT with nine properties in China, Hong Kong, and Japan. Here are nine things investors should know about MNACT’s latest results: Gross revenue for the reporting quarter grew 19.4% year over year to S$105.6 m

https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/why-do-brokerages-only-provide-research-reports-for-large-companies/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/is-the-stock-market-a-battle-zone-for-you/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/mapletree-north-asia-commercial-trusts-latest-earnings-gross-revenue-up-by-19-4/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/m1-ltds-latest-result-net-profit-fell-21-4-in-q4/https://www.fool.sg/2019/01/30/the-importance-of-catalysts-in-investing/Over the course of their investment lifetime, many investors take the time and effort to review their investment performance on an ongoing basis. This is a good practice and is encouraged as it forces investors to take a good hard look at their portfolio to see if it can be improved in any way. However, the problem is that most investors tend to look at performan

Imagine yourself as a business owner who is looking out for a retail shop in an upper-scale mall located across either Singapore or Hongkong. The location could be located at the prestige Orchard Road or the Vivocity of Singapore or on the other sider at the oceanfront Harbour City or Times Square of Hongkong. Either location you choose are going to get you sales and visibility for your product or services, which based on historical evidence are evident on their traffic footprint.Singapore RetailI blogged earlier this month here on the 6th Jan 2019 on the back of SPH Reit's rental reversion results that we are going to see better days for Starhill, which I am very heavily vested in.Since then, Starhill's share price has went up from 67.5 cents to the closing price of 71

Against the backdrop of a rising interest rate environment, REITs seem to be one of the obvious losers. This is because REITs are asset-heavy investments that require high levels of leverage, borrowing substantial amounts of money to purchase properties that they subsequently rent out. Read Also: Increasing Interest Rates In 2018: Here Are 4 Ways Singaporeans Will Be Affected In Singapore, there are currently 39 listed REITs and a further nine business trusts (of which six are property related). On average, they have a debt to asset ratio of just under 35%. With rising interest rates, REITs will have to fork out more in interest payment, potentially reducing the distributions they can pay to investors. How REITs Have Performed In YTD 2018 To gauge the performance of REITs in 2018, we can l