Philip Chua Business Blog

Archive for August, 2009

SMALL cap stocks came alive last week, lifting our portfolios by an average 9.1 per cent. This is the strongest climb since May and is more than twice the rate of increase registered by the Straits Times Index last week. The one year top losers’ portfolio was the best performing portfolio last week, rising by a whopping 15.3 per cent. Its performance was boosted notably by the S-chips and resource… more

WALL Street seems to be experiencing a period of uncertainty. Investors suddenly appear uncertain as to whether the recovery is real, despite assurances from the federal government and central bank. Or, if they are sure of the recovery, they’re not sure of how much upside can be left in stocks. This much is obvious from the US market’s recent, unconvincing performances, despite supposedly encourag… more

(SINGAPORE) Call it the Hungry Ghost effect, if you will. But it seems that September has historically been a ‘cursed’ month for stock markets.
For example, it was in September last year that 158-year-old Lehman Brothers collapsed and everything fell apart.
Then there was the 1997 Financial Crisis, which began in late August, and got worse in September.
Black Monday of 1987 came after stocks sta… more

UNLESS Shanghai displays signs of more destabilisation, local blue chips may well end on a high note for the month of August, as its last trading day draws to a close today.

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STindex

Despite earlier fears of a ferocious correction after the run-up last month, Augus… more

IN JANUARY, as the global financial storm lashed Singapore shores, fears took hold that large numbers of cash-strapped home owners might default on their monthly mortgage instalments, as businesses went belly-up and jobs were lost.
DBS Bank went out of its way to calm the jitters by offering to resurrect the interest-only payment scheme to allow borrowers to make only interest payments on their ho… more

WHEN Mr Mak S.H. came back to Singapore in 2002 after more than 20 years of working abroad in the financial sector, he was looking forward to his retirement.

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POOR share price performance and a lack of liquidity have prompted a handful of China firms here, or S-chips, to delist from the Singapore Exchange (SGX).
So far this year, Sihuan Pharmaceutical, Man Wah Holdings and ChungHong Holdings, among others, have taken steps to exit the local bourse.
One of the woes that S-chips here face is that they are trading at lower values than their counterparts in… more

I am an Average Joe when it comes to matters of personal finance, so says a financial literacy quiz I took recently.

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Where do you see this?
In investment-related documents and websites.
What does it mean?
A regular savings plan is a monthly subscription plan that enables you to invest a little money at a time, say $200, in a particular investment such as a unit trust, on a regular basis. It is an effective strategy that avoids trying to time the markets. By investing regularly, more units are bought when prices … more

If you own a traditional whole life or endowment insurance policy, you would no doubt have come across the term ‘participating fund’ – often shortened to ‘par fund’.

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PAR FUND ASSETS

Mystified by just what this par fund is and how it operates? You are not alone sin… more