The Trade War is escalating.You can feel that coming as investors as you read the news that both Trump and Xi had continuously been playing a game of cat and mouse and it appears there's no way both could get a mutual agreement that might compromise one another.Last night was a bloodbath as Dow was down more than 600+ points while Nasdaq had fallen by 3%.It's pretty drastic in my opinion, but we are getting the hang of it with Trump.Up 2% on one night, down 3% the next day, and then up another 2%, and then down another 3%.Monday is going to be interesting especially for our STI index which is still at 3,110, and are still up by about 4-5% (inclusive of dividend) year to date.Not cool at all given we want a bigger drop like the ones we've seen most recently in 2016, at the very least.The ye

Jardine Matheson Holdings (SGX: J36) has been on a tear this year, dropping by as much as 23% in 2019, mainly due to the intensifying global trade tension, protests in Hongkong and slowing businesses in particular the auto sales, putting the company as one of the worst performer in the STI index.As a contrarian investor myself, I became interested in the company when the share price keeps falling, which means valuations are getting cheaper in relative to its earnings.But as an investor with limited resources, is now the best time to put our money into the company?Company's BackgroundFounded in 1832, Jardine Matheson Holdings became one of the trading houses that shaped the early days of Hong Kong's development. It moved its stock listing to Singapore thereafter in the early 1990s.The compa

I like to monitor companies that dish out dividends for investment ideas. In the next few days, there are some companies going ex-dividend. In other words, you need to own shares in the company before a particular day of the week to receive their dividends. Let’s look at three of those companies. Wednesday, 21 August 2019 On Wednesday, Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd (SGX: S63) will be going ex-dividend. The conglomerate is dishing out S$0.05 per share for its second quarter of 2019. For the latest quarter, ST Engineering’s revenue grew 8% year-on-year to S$1.78 billion while its net profit rose 18% to S$138.2 million. In April, the acquisition of MRA Systems (MRAS) was completed, and that contributed well to both sales and earnings. The group’s future looks brigh

Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited (SGX: J336) is a conglomerate with interests in the web of Jardines companies which include Jardine Strategic Holdings Limited (SGX: J37) , Jardine Cycle & Carriage Ltd (SGX: C07), Hongkong Land Holdings Limited (SGX: H78), Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd (SGX: D01), Mandarin Oriental Limited (SGX: M04), Jardine Lloyd Thompson and Jardine Pacific. From the above, we can see that the company has a wide interest in companies operating in various industries. Given such complexity, investors may find it difficult to understand the company. Here, I’ll shed some light on one important aspect of the company – how it makes its cash, which will help investors better understand its businesses. Cheat sheet Source: Jardine Matheson 2018 Annual

Sheng Siong Group Ltd (SGX: OV8) is one of the largest supermarket chains in Singapore. The group runs 54 outlets across Singapore that are located primarily in the heartland and HDB areas of the island. The stores carry a wide assortment of live, fresh, and chilled produce as well as general merchandise such as toiletries and essential household products. I’ve written previously about Sheng Siong’s improving gross margins but cautioned about its operating and net margins. Investors also need to be comfortable with the group’s growth plans, as it faces stiff competition from the likes of NTUC FairPrice and Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd (SGX: D01). With so many moving parts, investors may wonder how to value the group, and whether its shares are cheap or expensive

Mapletree Commercial Trust (SGX: N2IU) is a REIT that invests in properties used for office and/or retail purposes. MCT’s portfolio consists of five assets: VivoCity, Mapletree Business City I (MBC I), PSA Building, Mapletree Anson, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch Harbourfront. These assets have a total net lettable area of 3.9 million square feet and are valued at around S$7 billion. MCT reported its Q1 2020 earnings recently (it has a 31 March fiscal year-end) and distribution per unit (DPU) saw healthy growth of 3.6%. All properties except for Mapletree Anson contributed to higher revenue, leading to a year-on-year rise of 3.3% in gross revenue to S$112.1 million. Operating expenses, however, rose by 5.2% year on year, which resulted in net property income (NPI) rising by a sma

Jardine Strategic Holdings Limited (SGX: J37), or JS, is a conglomerate with interests in the web of Jardines companies such as Jardine Cycle & Carriage Ltd (SGX: C07), Hongkong Land Holdings Limited (SGX: H78), Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd (SGX: D01) and Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited (SGX: J336). One of the main reasons that retail investors have generally stayed away from Jardine Strategic is due to the complexity of its businesses, as well of its web of ownership in various entities across the group. Still, if investors are willing to carry out some work studying this company, they might find some good traits to like about this company. In this article, I’ll point out two reasons why Jardine Strategic could be a great dividend stock to consider. Solid busine

In the last earnings season, around 20 percent of companies reported earnings that fell below RHB’s estimates. Going into 1Q19 and beyond, RHB recommends some quality counters that investors would not have to lose sleep over. Big Names Falling Prey To Earnings Downgrade Among them, Dairy Farm, Genting Singapore and Golden Agri-Resources were some of the big names that missed earnings expectations. Given the moderation of growth in 2019, RHB has downgraded the outlook in its coverage universe. A Sign Of More To Come Prior to 4Q18, downgrades eased during 3Q18. However, as the 4Q18 earnings season progressed, the pace of downgrades started picking up. Since September 2018, the telecom, transport, consumer staples and banking sectors have seen the most downgrades to consensus earnings. RHB:

Three things investors should know about retail giant Dairy Farm International (SGX: D01).