Philip Chua Business Blog

Archive for the ‘Singapore Financial News’ Category

A LIMP trading session yesterday finished with brokers heaving a sigh of relief that the boredom had ended and with the Straits Times Index standing 12.99 points weaker at 2,749.19.
Prices hardly budged throughout trading hours, forcing dealers and remisiers to try their luck at intraday punting, the alternatives being to watch TV or doze off at their terminals. As such, penny stocks were active, … more

(SINGAPORE) Gold prices continued to head south yesterday, with some analysts predicting more selling pressure in the coming weeks.
The yellow metal retreated after the US dollar rebounded against the euro, while firmer oil prices offered little help as investors turned cautious on bullion after it failed to sustain recent gains.
Gold dropped below a psychological level of US$1,100 an ounce as unc… more

(SINGAPORE) DEVELOPERS will be bringing forward their property launches over the next few months to satisfy strong demand from homebuyers, said Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore (Redas) president Simon Cheong yesterday.
But Mr Cheong, who was speaking at Redas’ spring festival lunch, warned that many developers are now facing depleting land banks following brisk home sales in recent… more

GREECE’S debt crisis rattled investors again yesterday and sent markets south despite overnight gains on Wall Street.
Reassurance from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke that interest rates would stay low for some time pleased investors, who sent the Dow Jones up 91.75 points, or 0.89 per cent.
But concerns over the weak United States job market and poor housing sales data outweighed the promis… more

WHO would you trust more? A fireman, or a real estate agent?
Thought so.
So did 760 Singapore residents who took part in an online poll conducted by Reader’s Digest magazine on the most trusted professionals in the country.
Conducted last October, the poll gave them two lists of 55 individuals and 40 professions and asked them to rate their trustworthiness on a scale of one to 10.
The results show… more

LAWS to give the authorities more bite when it comes to loan sharks and their accomplices came into effect yesterday, ahead of the opening of Singapore’s first casino, in a move lauded by MPs and counsellors as timely.
The changes to the Moneylenders Act also come in the wake of a rising tide of illegal moneylending activities in recent years.
Latest figures released by the police showed that ther… more

THE Housing Board has released 1,534 flats at two new projects, in the latest move to allay widespread fear of a public housing shortage.
Yesterday, it launched 750 build-to-order (BTO) units in Punggol and 784 in Woodlands. A further 1,000 BTO flats in Sengkang and Sembawang are slated for launch next month.
The launches are in line with the HDB’s plan to offer an islandwide spread of 7,000 BTO f… more

POLICYHOLDERS of NTUC Income can expect a surprise bonus this year to commemorate its 40th anniversary. Yesterday, its chief executive Tan Suee Chieh told The Straits Times that it is likely to do ’something special’ for its customers to mark the anniversary.
Details will be announced when the insurance cooperative posts its investment performance next month or in April.
Besides the good news for … more

DBS GROUP Holdings is Singapore’s top bank brand, according to a survey of the world’s 500 leading banking names.
The Brand Finance Banking 500 report, which measures strength, risk profile and growth potential to calculate brand value, claimed DBS eclipses rivals United Overseas Bank (UOB) and OCBC Bank.
It put DBS’ brand value at US$1.52 billion (S$2.1 billion) last year – a 12 per cent hike fro… more

THE fourth quarter earnings reporting season has so far achieved all that investors could have hoped for, but the good news has all been obscured by a wave of worrisome events from Washington and Beijing and Europe.
‘The corporate side of the stock market’s fundamental picture has been a true success story in the early going in 2010,’ said Nick Colas, chief market strategist at Convergex Group. ‘E… more