Philip Chua Business Blog

Posts Tagged ‘cent’

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

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

(SINGAPORE) The government’s 2009 budget deficit is likely to be smaller than projected, leaving room for a substantial fiscal package this year, economists say.
While initial estimates last year were for an $8.7 billion deficit, or 3.5 per cent of GDP, Citi economist Kit Wei Zheng said in a report yesterday that a milder recession than feared means operating revenue is likely to come in above pro… more

MANUFACTURING output increased by 14.4 per cent last month on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis.

And excluding the volatile biomedical manufacturing cluster, output increased by 23.9 per cent.

The electronics cluster saw the biggest jump with a 57.3 per cent increase in output last month (y-o-y).
The Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) attributed this to higher demand, coupled with the low b… more

STOCKS barely changed last week, with our portfolios edging up 0.4 per cent on average. The median gain was 0.2 per cent.

The lowest forward PE portfolio is the biggest gainer, advancing by 1.7 per cent. Two stocks contributed the bulk of the gain: China Fishery and Hong Leong Asia. The former popped 19.2 per cent while, the latter added 12.2 per cent.

Hong Leong Asia also helped lift the valu… more

(SINGAPORE) The stock market in 2009 may have regained much of the ground lost during the US sub-prime bear market of 2008, but the same cannot be said of the structured warrants market.

There, turnover last year sank to $10.9 billion, down by half from 2008 and by 61 per cent from 2007’s all-time high of $28 billion.

Such has been the drop in interest that the once-promising segment’s 2009 tu… more

(SINGAPORE) Private home prices continued their ascent in Q4 last year, climbing an estimated 7.3 per cent from the previous quarter. This sent prices for 2009 up 1.7 per cent from a year ago, defying bleak prognoses of double digit falls when the financial crisis unfolded.

Resale prices for public housing were also on their way up in Q4, rising 3.8 per cent from the previous quarter. Year-on-ye… more

THE financial market rebound has put a spring in the step of Singaporeans. They are now showing a greater willingness to take risks with their money.
Investors who had sought refuge in cash and steady yield products like bonds are now looking for higher returns and ways to better grow their wealth, according to a new Citibank survey.
It found that 44 per cent of people who stopped investing in the… more

SECOND liners and penny stocks continued to soak up the bulk of the market’s window-dressing energies yesterday as blue chips took a back seat for most of the session.

The Straits Times Index, which had risen 34 points in the previous two days and in local currency was up 63 per cent for the year to date, hovered within a narrow band before ending a nett 10 points higher at 2,879.76 on 2009’s pe… more

(SINGAPORE) Food prices have risen consistently over the past few months. And given erratic climatic conditions, they could become even more of a concern going forward.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.4 per cent in November from October. The increase was attributed mainly to the higher cost of housing, recreation and other items, and food.

As a result of dearer vegetables, fruits and ric… more