February: It Will Be Better

The portfolio turned red contributed mainly by the broad market losses.

FJ Benjamin saw a rash of insider selling by funds and this is a negative signal for the coming financial year. I am still holding on to it as I see it as the only proxy to the Singapore economy. From the above table, it has lost quite a bit from last year's rally.

Stratech has been taken off the SGX watch list which is a good thing. It is also posting several positive sounding announcements on the SGX website with the latest being a venture into Japan with its iFerret technology.

TPV Tech was suspended from trading. The word on the street is that there might be a placement as well as a takeover. This stock has come off recent tops of $1.00 after fears that it might lose out to enlarged rivals. The possible takeover bid by probably HK/PRC/Taiwanese existing shareholders is exciting because it will be the second company in my portfolio to do so!

But the bad news is that I will have to figure out what to do with the possible cash. As spelt out earlier, I intend to use all the cash gained from sales and dividends on the portfolio till my 30 time period is up.

Biosensors announced a set of decent results. I wonder if it is going to suffer from the "Genting" curse. That is when the stock really becomes profitable, it no longer becomes a "concept/hype" stock. I holding on to Biosensors because I bought it at a much lower price last year. It still has that earnings kicker in JWMS which for those holding on, should watch for developments.

Suddenly STI 3,200 does not seem reachable as the Chinese government tightens liquidity. Right now at 2,745 there abouts, I believe that there will still be further blood letting and there will be a return of huge intraday swings. 

Back of the envelope calculations suggests declines till CNY but the overall trend for the year will still be up. I still reiterate, the biggest losers this year will be the HK/PRC stock markets as they have been on steriods for quite a while. That does not mean that China's economy will not grow at 8%. Rather, those punting the stock market (which has become a culture) might lose more than their shirts.

Current indices in Europe suggests a possible strong showing on Monday in Singaporeled by component stocks (as usual).