The prevailing wisdom in investing is that investors should own large and reputable companies which have a long and stellar track record to buffer any risk of capital loss. Such companies are commonly called “blue-chip” companies. The term blue chip came from the game of poker where the blue-coloured chips within the game held the highest value. In the case of investing, blue-chip companies are considered the “best” there is and can reliably weather downturns to emerge either unscathed or even stronger. This does beg the question though — does this mean that such companies are guaranteed sure-win investments? Should investors, therefore, pile all their money in them? Large, Reputable Companies May Also Experience Business Problems Even though blue-chip compani

It’s probably safe to say that every investor has seen some type of bad news in his investing lifetime. Although we may expend our best efforts to mitigate risks and ensure all our bases are covered, the randomness in the world and evolving business conditions may still throw up some nasty surprises. As investors, we cannot control such events as they are part and parcel of investing, but what we can control is how we react to them and what we learn from them. Here are three methods investors can use to avoid going into a tizzy when bad news hits them. Keep Calm And Continue Investing Investors should understand and accept that volatility in earnings and cash flows are a normal aspect of investing. Investments may do poorly due to reasons which are either out of our control or were d

In the past year, Valuetronics Holdings Limited’s (SGX: BN2) share price has been affected by the uncertainty surrounding the ongoing trade war between China and the United States. Fears that some of its main customers may be tempted to source for other suppliers outside of China have also caused Valuetronics’ management to issue words of caution to its investors. In the company’s third quarter fiscal results, which was unveiled on Tuesday, shed some light on how the company performed and its management’s expectation for the future. Here are the three most important takeaways that investors in this manufacturing company ought to know from its earnings update. No 1: Consumer electronics segment declined and will continue to do so in the future Valuetronics breaks down its business i

Investment Portfolio1. Received SingPost dividend of 0.5 cents/share2. Entitled to CapitaR China Trust scrip or cash dividend of 4.83 cents/unit3. Entitled to MapletreeInd Trust scrip or cash dividend of 1.71 cents/unit for advance distributionStockHolding Price*Market PriceUnrealized Profit/LossDividend ReturnNon-StrategicCapitaMall Trust$1.155$2.40+105.30%+87.00%First REIT$0.5973$1.08+80.39%+118.42%Genting SP$0.5314$1.02+91.35%+25.40%KepCorp$7.4156$6.16-17.30%+43.97%SIA$12.0697$10.01-17.47%+35.17%SingPost$1.0093$1.01-0.51%+48.76%MapletreeInd Trust$0.8537$2.00+136.74%+72.54%Kep DC Reit$0.9174$1.47+63.21%+26.87%Frasers Cpt Trust$1.6314$2.29+38.67%+23.37%Unrealized+44.97%+64.97%StrategicKep REIT--$1.23123.00 cents/share21.83 cents/unitFrasersCom Trust--$1.49149.00 cents/share7.20 cents/unit

1. SPH Reit  --  4th Jan 20192. SPH  --  11th Jan 20193. First Reit  --  16th Jan 20194. FrasersCom Trust  --  18th Jan 20195. Kep Reit  --  21st Jan 20196. Frasers Cpt Trust  --  21st Jan 20197. Mapletreelog Trust  --  21st Jan 20198. Kep DC Reit  --  22nd Jan 20199. Kep Infra Trust  --  22nd Jan 201910. MapletreeInd Trust  --  22nd Jan 201911. MapletreeCom Trust  --  23rd Jan 201912. Kep T&T  --  23rd Jan 201913. Suntec Reit  --  23rd Jan 201914. CapitaMall Trust  --  23rd Jan 201915. SGX  --  24th Jan 201916. Kep-KBS US Reit  --  24th Jan 201917. Kep Corp  --  24th Jan 201918. Frasers L&T  --  24th Jan

We are in earnings season again! Many companies have been reporting their quarterly results over the last few weeks, and some of the news has been good, and some bad. Some companies have reported a bit of both. Today we’re looking at two companies that have recently reported mixed quarterly results. First, we have Singapore Post Limited (SGX: S08), or SingPost, a mail and logistics company organised into four major segments of Post and Parcel, Logistics, eCommerce, and Property. For the quarter ended 31 December 2018, SingPost reported that revenue improved 7.6% year on year to S$441.4 million as a result of higher volume across the group. Yet, quarterly operating profit declined 8.5% year on year to S$42.2 million, largely due to challenges in the U.S. business. Net profit for the

SBS Transit Ltd (SGX: S61) is a provider of bus and rail services in Singapore. Under the bus services, it runs multiple bus packages, which it had successfully bid for from the government. Under the rail services business, SBS Transit operates the North East Line (NEL), the Downtown Line (DTL), and the Sengkang and Punggol Light Rapid Transit (SPLRT). SBS Transit announced its financial results for the full year ended 31 December 2018, yesterday. Let’s have a quick look to see how it did. Financial highlights  Here are some of the key financial highlights from the latest full-year results: 1) Revenue grew 16.1% year-on-year to S$1.38 billion. 2) Total operating costs increased by 13.6% to S$1.28 billion. 3) As a result, operating profit surged 64% to S$97.3 million. 4) Profit attributa

Yesterday, Valuetronics Holdings Limited (SGX: BN2) announced its third-quarter financial results for the year ending March 2019. As a quick introduction, Valuetronics is an integrated electronic manufacturing service provider headquartered in Hong Kong. It offers a combination of design, engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain support services for electronic and electro-mechanical products. Here are nine things investors should know about the company from its latest earnings announcement: Revenue for the quarter went down 7.5% year on year to HK$729.6 million. Yet, gross profit was up by 1.8% year on year to HK$ 115.8 million. Gross profit margin grew from 14.4% last year to 15.9% in this quarter. The improvement in gross profit margin was due to a change in sales mix. Profit att

New investors usually start out with no notion of which investment style fits them the best. Over time and with more experience in the market, we each adopt a style that suits both our temperament and our abilities. Our investment style is personal and should be attuned to our own capabilities and characteristics — seen as an extension of our personalities. The question I have been posed by some friends is, should my investing style change according to age or how the market is performing? Is there a need to adapt or evolve in order to stay relevant? Style dominance What I have observed through interactions with many seasoned investors is that most of them have picked a certain investment style and philosophy, and their thinking and psychology are geared towards this style, be it grow

Many investors know that investing is more than just numbers or analysis — it also invariably involves an entire host of emotions. This is the psychological aspect of investing, and the two most dominant emotions when investing are greed and fear. Greed causes investors to chase share prices and good news in the hope of making a quick profit, and it may lead to huge losses when things do not work out as planned. Fear causes people to sell when share prices plunge lower, as they are afraid that they will lose even more money, regardless of the fundamentals of the underlying business. Seeing the trouble emotions can cause, should we try to suppress our emotions when investing? Suppression — an extremely tough effort The problem with wanting to suppress emotions entirely is that a

Sunningdale Tech Ltd (SGX: BHQ) is a manufacturer of precision plastic components. For investors who are looking to invest in Sunningdale, it is essential for them to know how the company brings in the revenue. Buying shares in a company without knowledge of how it makes money is not advisable. With that, let’s look at the revenue contribution of each of Sunningdale’s business segments for the financial year ended 31 December 2017 (FY2017): Source: Sunningdale Tech Ltd 2017 annual report The Automotive business segment mainly produces faceplates to be used in cars such as on the audio systems, speedometers, steering switches and exterior antennas. In 2017, this segment accounted for 36.4% of Sunningdale’s total revenue of S$724.5 million. Next, the Consumer/IT division fabricates IT

Last month, my Foolish colleague, Chong Ser Jing, revealed the 30 best stocks to buy in Singapore for 2019. The shares were discovered with the help of the Magic Formula, an investing strategy made famous by Joel Greenblatt in his book, The Little Book That Beats The Market. From that list of 30 shares, I picked out three companies that look interesting. Here they are. Company #1 The first company on my list is Boustead Singapore Limited (SGX: F9D), a global service provider of infrastructure-related engineering services and geo-spatial technology solutions. It recently added a healthcare business to its suite of services. Boustead Singapore’s share price has fallen from a high of S$1.93 in April 2014 to S$0.80 right now. The slowdown in the global oil and gas industry and Singaporeâ€

Investment Portfolio1. Received First Reit dividend of 2.15 cents/unit2. Entitled FrasersCom Trust scrip or dividend of 2.40 cents/unit3. Received Kep Reit dividend of 1.36 cents/unit4. Entitled Mapletreelog Trust scrip or cash dividend of 2.002 cents/unit5. Received Frasers Cptr Trust dividend of 3.02 cents/unit6. Received Kep DC Reit dividend of 3.70 cents/unit7. Entitled MapletreeInd Trust scrip or cash dividend of 3.07 cents/unit8. Received CapitaMall Trust dividend of 1.56 cents/unit9. Received MapletreeCom Trust dividend of 2.33 cents/unitStockHolding Price*Market PriceUnrealized Profit/LossDividend ReturnNon-StrategicCapitaMall Trust$1.155$2.40+105.30%+87.00%First REIT$0.5973$1.09+82.06%+118.42%Genting SP$0.5314$1.10+106.40%+25.40%KepCorp$7.4156$6.10-18.10%+43.97%SIA$12.0697$9.65-20

FTSE STI ended 2018 at 3068.76 compared with 3402.92 a year ago, representing a loss of  334.16 point or 9.82%.  It was never a good year for global stock market not just STI.  Most of the year STI was in correction mode with a high of 3641.65 in May and a low of 2955.68 in October.  The following summarized my Investment Portfolio performance for 2018 vs 201720182017Variant Non-Strategic Unrealized Gain/Loss              +34.89%         +68.72%      -49.23%Strategic Unrealized Gain/Loss              +22.20%         +21.29%      +4.27%Portfolio Unrealized Gain/Loss          &nbs

Investment Portfolio1. Received MapletreeInd scrip dividend, increasing holding by 1.64%, reducing holding price from $0.8537 to $0.8399StockHolding Price*Market PriceUnrealized Profit/LossDividend ReturnNon-StrategicCapitaMall Trust$1.155$2.26+93.26%+85.66%First REIT$0.5973$0.985+64.52%+114.82%Genting SP$0.5314$0.975+82.89%+25.40%KepCorp$7.4156$5.91-20.67%+43.97%SIA$12.0697$9.42-22.36%+35.17%SingPost$1.0093$0.915-9.92%+48.27%MapletreeInd Trust$0.8537$1.91+126.03%+72.54%Kep DC Reit$0.9174$1.35+49.83%+22.74%Frasers Cpt Trust$1.6314$2.17+31.32%+21.51%Unrealized+34.89%+63.39%StrategicKep REIT--$1.14114.00 cents/share20.47 cents/unitFrasersCom Trust--$1.36136.00 cents/share7.20 cents/unitMapletreeCom Trust--$1.65165.00 cents/share19.92 cents/unitMapletreelog Trust--$1.26126.00 cents/share17.06

We highlight two investment themes that UOBKH recommends for investing: Dividend From Cash Machines and M&A Plays. Investors Takeaway: 2 Cash Rich Stocks For Dividend Seekers With the rising interest rate environment, UOBKH recommends investors to focus on high dividend yield stocks that are less correlated with higher rates. For this investment theme, UOBKH favours CSE Global and Valuetronics. There are also large caps that UOBKH prefers, like SingTel, DBS, SATS and ST Engineering. According to UOBKH’s estimates, these stocks offer sustainable dividend yields of at least four percent. They are also forecasted to grow their dividends in the next 1-2 years. CSE Global CSE Global has benefitted from higher oil prices in 2018. Going forward, there are potential synergies from its new

For the past quarters, manufacturers have been enjoying a boom in investors’ demand as Singapore’s economy recovers. But ever since US President Trump started his trade war rhetoric against China, manufacturers have fallen out of favour. Trade War, Rising Labour Costs And Rising Raw Material Costs Among Headwinds For Manufacturers The concern was largely surrounding the impact of the trade war on global trade and global economic growth. As businesses turn more cautious on increasing risks of trade tensions, some of the manufacturers are facing pricing pressure from their customers. Some customers have even delayed orders to wait for a recovery in consumers’ sentiment. Apart from worries of the macro economic environment, there are also challenges within the manufacturing sector. Risi

Integrated electronic manufacturing services (EMS) provider Valuetronics Holdings’ (Valuetronics) share price fell roughly 37.2 percent from its peak of $1.09, which it touched in late-March this year. Its share price has been battered in recent months as investors are cautious about the impact of the on-going US-China trade war. For the EMS provider, all of its manufacturing plants are located in China and it derived a significant 41.9 percent of revenue from the US in FY18. On top of that, Valuetronics delivered a mixed earnings performance in the latest quarter. Is the beaten-down share price an opportune entry point for investors? We dive deeper to see if Valuetronics could rekindle better performances in coming quarters. Latest Earnings In 1H19, revenue remained flat at HK$1.4 bill

Is the worst of the trade conflict finally behind us? On Monday, stock markets in Asia reacted positively to the announcement that the United States and China have agreed not to impose further tariffs on each other for 90 days. China is hoping that the US will remove tariffs imposed in July, while the White House said that talks will take place to resolve specific US complaints such as “forced technology transfer” within the next 90 days. If the trade conflict does resolve, it will certainly be good news for investors around the world. Lower trade barriers mean more efficient use of resources and larger markets for companies around the world in a time where trade has become a major part of the world economy. While the lifting of trade tariffs do not directly impact Singapore,

The Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI) has rallied 2.1% as of the time of writing today. The spike comes after US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a truce on the trade war over dinner on Saturday after the G20 summit. If you are wondering what stocks you should consider for your portfolio amid the rally, you have to look no further. Using data from S&P Global Market Intelligence and the Magic Formula investing strategy developed by investor Joel Greenblatt, I found some of the best Singapore-listed stocks for December that could go on to do well. The basic premise of the Magic Formula is to find the 30 best shares in the market as ranked by their cheapness and their quality, and to hold on to that basket shares for a year before repeating the ranking proc