Despite an overhang on the equities markets due to the ongoing trade tensions and worries about the economic slowdown, most companies generally continue to deliver decent results for the last quarter. Some of the key highlights in this earnings season include Keppel Corporation announcing a turnaround of its offshore and marine division. Meanwhile, local bank DBS Group Holdings also achieved record quarterly net profit of $1.7 billion rising 8.5 percent year-on-year, which helped to lift Straits Times Index temporarily above the 3,400 level closing at 3,407.02 on 29 April 2019. Nevertheless, with the recent rally, the probability of an imminent correction has also heightened. For investors who are getting jittery about the widely-believed axiom, “sell in May and go away”, we identify t

1. SPH REIT  --  5th Apr 20192. SPH  --  9th Apr 20193. First REIT  --  10th Apr 20194. Kep Infra Trust  --  15th Apr 20195. Kep DC Reit  --  15th Apr 20196. Kep-KBS US Reit  --  16th Apr 20197. Kep Reit  --  17th Apr 20198. Soilbuild REIT  --  17th Apr 20199. Kep Corp  --  18th Apr 201910. CapitaComm Trust  --  18th Apr 201911. MapletreeInd Trust  --  22nd Apr 201912. MapletreeCom Trust  --  23rd Apr 201913. FrasersCom Trust  --  23rd Apr 201914. Suntec Reit  --  24th Apr 201915. CapitaMall Trust -- 24th Apr 201916. Frasers Cpt Trust  --  24th Apr 201917. CapitaR China Trust  --  24th Apr 201918. SGX  --  25th Apr 201919.

We are in the midst of earnings season again! Given that many companies are reporting their results at the same time, it might be useful to categorise them into three buckets of positive, negative and mixed. In this article, I’ll look at two companies that have recently reported mixed results. The first company is Keppel Corporation Limited (SGX: BN4). As a quick introduction, Keppel Corporation a conglomerate with major business segments include Offshore and Marine, Property, Infrastructure, and Investment. For the quarter ended 31 March 2019, Keppel reported that revenue was up by 4.1% year-on-year to S$1.5 billion. Yet, profit from operations fell by 33.9% to S$321.6 million, driven mainly by lower other operating income. Similarly, net profit attributable to shareholders for the

Just realized that my last overall portfolio performance update was back in June 2018, and I haven’t been updating it for the past 10 months. The page is now updated and revamped. I’ve added in a line chart of the portfolio size, going back to 2011 since I’ve started tracking. Note that this includes any capital injections or withdrawals. (Mostly injections, except for 2015 and thus far, in 2019). I’ve opted not to add to the portfolio thus far in 2019, as I’ve shunted some capital into the property fund instead. Hopefully, there’d be some firesales that come up soon. Thus far, all the “firesales” that I’ve seen, are not really firesales but just marketing ploys. I’ve only really seen 1 true blue firesale a couple of years back, a

MM2 Asia Ltd (SGX: 1B0) is a content and media company. It has businesses in the production and distribution of film, TV and online content, post-production, cinema operation, event production, and concert promotion in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, and the U.S. At their current price of S$0.27 (at the time of writing), MM2 Asia’s shares are trading at $S0.01 above their 52-week low of S$0.26. Is MM2 Asia cheap now? If shares are cheap, it might be a good opportunity for investors. There is no easy answer, but we can get some insight by comparing MM2 Asia’s current valuation with the market’s valuation. We’ll use three common valuation metrics: the price-to-book (P/B) ratio, the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, and the dividend yield. I will be using the SPDR STI ETF

In the first quarter of 2019, local benchmark Straits Times Index ended flat as investors juggled between worries about higher US recession risks and the impending outcome of the US-China trade talks. The only bright spot was the S-REIT sector as it outperformed on the Fed’s dovish interest rate hike forecast. The slowdown in hike came from lower GDP growth expectations and rising unemployment, leading to the inversion of US yield curve to heighten recession fears. According to DBS, here are three investment strategies for you to jumpstart your portfolio. Investors Takeaway: 3 Investment Strategies To Jumpstart Your Portfolio By DBS Strategy 1: ‘Peak’ Interest Rate, Uncertain Growth Environment Calls For Greater Focus On Yield/Defensive Stocks According to the Fed’s dot plot, they

Results from CMT, Singapore Exchange and Venture Corporation, and an interest-rate decision from the Bank of Japan are some of next week's highlights.

The Straits Times Index is made up of the 30 strongest and most liquid stocks listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX). For many of us, they represent the companies most of us would be very familiar with or have businesses that we would be familiar with. Some of these companies include DBS, UOB, OCBC, SingTel, CapitaLand, Keppel Corp, Singapore Airlines, Genting Singapore, City Developments, SGX, Venture Corp, Sembcorp Industries, SPH and, of course, 17 other companies. How The Straits Times Index (STI) Performed So Far In 2019 We are well into the second quarter of 2019, which means many of these companies will be releasing their operating performance for the first quarter of 2019 very soon. Look out for these announcements in the coming weeks. Read Also: Complete Guide To Investing In The

The latest earnings quarter turned out to be a worse than expected for Malaysian stocks. Among the MY stocks that were under DBS’ coverage, 30 percent missed consensus expectations. This was largely driven by underperformance of plantation, utilities, oil & gas and airline companies. Large cap companies have also been guiding for more cautious growth in 2019, leading to a downward earnings revision across KLCI. Given the lack of earnings growth, DBS recommends investors to build more defences into your investment strategy while looking out for quality names with resilient earnings and yield. Here are the top MY picks that DBS thinks should go into your portfolio to go defensive. Investors Takeaway: 3 MY Bank Names For A Defensive Portfolio Hong Leong Bank Hong Leong Bank is among t

The latest earnings season was a disappointment, to say the least. Multiple sectors such as banks, property, telco and O&G saw earnings cut due to slowing global growth and US-China trade war. As a result, earnings growth was slashed for FY19. This contributed to the fall in STI from its February high of 3,286. Going forward, DBS is expecting STI to stay around the support area of 3,180 with a bull-case forecast of 3,500 by end of the year. Investors Takeaway: 3 Strategies After A Disappointing Quarter By DBS For investors, the deepening cuts point to a worrying sign of things to come in the upcoming quarters. So, how should investors adjust their investment strategy to avoid underperformance in the upcoming month? According to DBS, there are three strategies that investors should cons

Following the United States extending its deadline to raise tariffs on Chinese products and increased optimism that the two biggest economies are well on track to reach an agreement, outlook in the markets has clearly turned for the better. Because of this, China’s Shanghai Composite Index jumped 5.6 percent within a single trading day on 25 February 2019. Along with the rise of the Chinese markets, the local bourse also saw its benchmark Straits Times Index registering a year-to-date return of 3.9 percent. In the last two months, we noticed three stocks which had good run-ups achieving double-digit growth in their share prices. As investment guru Warren Buffett had pointed out, “be fearful when others are greedy”. While we cannot say for sure if these three stocks may continue to ru

In this article, we will look at 10 key points from Venture Corporation Ltd’s (SGX: V03) latest result announcement.

2019 has only just arrived and the stock market is already looking upbeat compared to 2018. Having opened the year at 3,051 points, the Straits Times Index (STI) closed at 3,202 points on 25 January 2019, an increase of about 5% since the start of the year. Since an index is made up of different stocks, it makes sense that there are some stocks in the STI which have performed exceptionally well since the start of the year, contributing to the overall performance of the index. As pointed out by SGX Market Strategist Geoff Howie, six of the seven poorest performing STI stocks in 2018 were among the STI’s 10 strongest stocks in 2019 thus far. This suggests that mean reversion could be at play for some of these popular blue-chip counters. Mean reversion is a financial theory suggesting that

In this article, we highlight two trade diversion plays that DBS recommends investors in 2019. Looming Danger Of US-China Trade War The ongoing trade disputes between the US and China will affect export dependent economies such as Singapore. Singapore’s manufacturing base is largely focused on high value-added intermediate products, and a large proportion is shipped to China for subsequent processing. However, as the trade war is largely bilateral in nature, there could be some degree of trade diversion, which could benefit Southeast Asia’s economies. Singapore is in a unique position given its regional hub status, a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement network and higher level of innovation and business sophistication. Being a regional shipping and financial hub, Singapore could also se