2013 Action Items

Here are the items I intend to tick off for 2013

Portfolio Review 2012: Portfolio 30.2% vs STI 20.6%

The Straits Times Index opened at 2,646.35 on the first trading day while my portfolio started at SGD 42,053 at the start of the year. In the beginning, I had bought some Etika International and sold my holdings of Asiatic Group. More recently, I bought some Petra Foods and sold off China Animal Healthcare, Stratech Systems and TPV Technology. But for convenience, let me use those values I have given.

Cut loss on Stratech, TPV and ChinaAnimal Healthcare

I finally sold off three of the four stocks I said I would be selling. Stratech has been in the red for a long time. This was made worse by me subscribing to the excess rights which are not accounted for her. My initial investment of SGD 1,000 halved with no dividends in between.

clearing stock on Thursday

I intend to clear the following stocks: Stratech TPV Tech China Animal The stocks above are deep in the red. I might sell off Action Asia as well for i did not anticipate that tablets.can do such a good job entertaining people on road trips.

away on holiday

am in sri lanka at the moment for a holiday. will be back soon to do a portfolio updaye.

Not enough money for HDB downpayment

It is a bit late as this story has gone some rounds. The blogger (who is studying), to avoid any cash outlay on the first 5% of his HDB BTO delayed documentation such that his girlfriend (who make about 2,500 per month) can accumulate enough CPF in her account to pay for the down payment as the process is being delayed. He is of course trying to ensure he does not cough out cash because he wants to use it for the investment game, hence he rather taps his girlfriends CPF. He has been criticised by other blogger for gaming the system. Issues of ethics aside, I would say that if he can make the decision to commit to a flat, that is great because of the long lead time to completion. The flip-side is that he has to be sure that his partner is the one during the period which the flat is completed. If things do not work out between the two, and that cheap housing was the reason for signing up together, it will be very messy personally and financially.

bought more Petra Foods

(Updated)

Bought two lots of Petra Foods at 2.81 per lot. Payed for them using dividends from Elite KSB and I am left about SGD 370 worth of free cash. Petra foods is so illiquid that it ended the day lower than i had bought. When I checked the SGX website, Petra Foods announced for a trading halt citing a material announcement. This is quite worrying for me even though I feel its fundamentals are good.

Elite KSB despite disposing its main asset is slowly on the rise. If you add back the special dividends  it is worth at least 61 cents. I have got no more free cash but i am tempted to sell all my shares that are not worth at least SGD 1500 per company. They look increasingly small as I shore up my individual positions. I am hoping to get to an efficient level of maybe 3000 dollars to keep transaction fees low.

Examining Singapore's scholarship system

There has been an exchange of letters regarding Singapore's meritocracy in view of the scholarship system. The original letter by Harvey Neo essentially argues that scholarships pervert meritocracy because scholarship holders because they are fast-tracked in their careers compared to non-scholarship holders, with little or no relevance to their actual work. The rebuttal came from Bryan Chow and I reproduce here the more relevant paragraphs:

Sam Goi takes 14% stake in Etika

In a very interesting development, Sam Goi, the very prominent Singapore businessman has taken a 14% stake in Etika International. This caused an increase in its share price yesterday. Etika's share price has been sliding for some time and this is welcomed. Long term wise, I suspect that Sam Goi might use this stake as a way on injecting some of his assets (TYJ is not listed) but it just speculation on my part.