Singapore News Highlights: 24th Nov 2015

• Singapore shares were up with the STI up 0.04% or 1.05 points to 2,904.54. 

• KLW shares fall 14% after it announced yesterday that it is under investigation by the Commercial Affairs Department for possible offence(s) under the Securities and Futures Act.

• New Silkroutes Group requested to lift its trading halt, after Malta's Ministry of Energy and Health has become a new shareholder of IEG Malta.

• UOB launched its US$8 billion covered bond programme.

• Noble’s battling criticism of its accounting, may have its credit rating cut to junk by S&P's on concerns about the company's liquidity.

• Kepple Corporation has priced the issue of its S$200 million notes due 2023.

• Subsidiary of Midas won 4 contracts worth S$16.1 million to supply aluminium alloy extrusion for metro trains in China, and airport rail trains in Malaysia.

• Yuan fell to its 3-month low as the central bank weakened the currency's reference rate amid a dollar advance and also due to the concern that China will allow a decline to help its economy.

• Risks for S-Reits will rise in 2016, in view of weak economic fundamentals and new supply that will be added into most sectors.

• Singapore inflation eased last month, to -0.8% as compared with -0.6% in September mainly due to the lower costs of oil-related and retail items.

• The creation of the Asean Economic Community has potentially significant consequences for the Singapore economy.

• USD rose yesterday at economic reports expected to show improvements that could support a Federal Reserve interest rate hike next month.

• National Gallery Singapore,was unveiled by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong before it opens to the public from Today.

How does Forex Work?

The foreign exchange market (forex, FX, or currency market) is a global decentralizedmarket for the trading of currencies. This includes all aspects of buying, selling and exchanging currencies at current or determined prices. In terms of volume of trading, it is by far the largest market in the world.

• Forex trading is the simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another
  
• These two currencies make up what is known as a "currency pair"
  
• Currencies are always traded in pairs - each currency is represented by three letters
  
• The first two letters represent the country and the third letter identifies the currency
  
• Forex pairs are read in the opposite direction of mathematical proportions or ratios
  

For example:
EUR/USD = 1.23700

• The currency to the left of the slash ("/") is called the base currency (in this example, the Euro) and the currency on the right is called the quote currency (in this example, the U.S Dollar)
  
• This notation means that 1 unit of the base currency (that is, 1 Euro) is equal to 1.23700 U.S Dollars
  
• You have to pay 1.23700 U.S Dollars to buy 1 Euro
  
• If selling, the foreign currency exchange rate specifies how much units of the quote currency you get for selling one unit of the base currency
  
• In the above example, you will receive 1.23700 U.S Dollars when you sell 1 Euro
  

When to Buy?

A trader would open a buy position if they believe that the value of that specific base currency would increase.

When to Sell?

A trader would open a sell position if they believe that the value of that specific base currency would decrease.

When can Currencies be Traded?

The spot FX market is unique among the world financial markets in that it's open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. See the below tables for GMT and EST trading times:

Singapore News Highlights - 19th Nov 2015

• Singapore shares opened higher following the Wall Street's gain on expectations that the Fed would be confident enough about the US economy to raise rates in December.

 

• SIIC Environment Holdings, recorded more than 100.6 million shares, making it the most active counter yesterday.

 

• Cosmosteel posted a 49.3% drop in net profit to S$1 million for the quarter ended Sept 30, 2015.

 

• Sembcorp Marine won a floating storage offloading vessel construction contract from Modec.

 

• Kepple T&T appointed Tan Eng Hwa as CFO & Desmond Gay Kah Meng as CEO.

 

• Air Liquide SA's US$10.3 billion takeover of rival Airgas Inc has given the European company a leading share of the US market in industrial gases amid forecasts of further construction and manufacturing growth.

 

• Oil prices higher as traders weighed a small gain in US inventories and a Federal Reserve report that supported expectations of a December interest rate hike.

 

• USD low against the euro after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's October policy meeting reinforced expectations of an interest rate hike next month.

 

• Due to the recent global developments that aim to clamp down on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting practices of some multinationals, and also increasing emphasis on tax transparency, there is need for Singapore to re-position itself for value creation to fuel its economy's growth.

 

• Fed officials continue to flag December as a likely time for interest rates to rise after 7 yrs near zero & expressing confidence they will be able to pull off a rate hike smoothly despite fears of an abrupt market reaction.

 

• SGX partnered EBS BrokerTec, ICAP's electronic FX and fixed income business, to launch SGX-listed FX block futures on EBS BrokerTec's FX central limit order book- EBS Market, a primary venue for e-traded currencies.

Four Pros of trading in FX market acting oneself as a profitable Forex Signal

1. Liquidity in forex trading is money making forex signal that allows traders to gain profit potential. Due to liquidity in FX market, it’s become easy to enter & exit the position.

2. There is no fix time to begin trading in FX market, trade whenever you want. Forex market allows traders to trade from Sunday 5 pm EST till Friday 4 pm EST.

3. The FX market provides Hedging which is a profitable currency trading signal by fixing the exchange rate at which the transaction concludes in the future. To complete this Hedge, the traders buy or sell currencies through ‘Swap’ instrument (a kind of derivative instrument that allows counterparts to exchange cash flows on the basis of specific time).

4. Hedging is also implementable from future markets depending on the size of trade & the amount of currency involved in it. It’s better to get Forex trading signal when implementing hedging.

Four Stock Trading Picks to Trade in a Streamlined Manner

When it comes to build-up the wealth through equity investment, understanding the financial aspect is an integrated part to follow. Besides the understanding part of financial terms, investors must have to invest capital according to market condition & stock picking strategy. The blog uncovers how to pick the stock in order to achieve maximum returns:

a. While picking stocks, quantifiable aspects of making profit potential is executable through proper stock trading signals, but there is several information which are indefinable & cannot be measured. By focusing on quantifiable aspects make stock picking more effective instead of spending time on getting indefinable information.

b. There are several reasons for stock prices to get fluctuate. Speculation through media, opinion of investors, risk aspects, supply & demand and presence of various suitable alternatives are some reasons that make stocks to fluctuate. Trading by focusing on your own investment goals must be followed. Considering stock picks would be supportive to trade in a streamlined manner.

c. Comparison of stock price notifies you the position of stock i.e. over-valued or under-valued. Comparison of the stock price must be done either through the revenue earnings or cash flow. While examining the performance of company, getting stock price position is one of the helpful stock signals to consider.

d. Traders, who are newbie should initiate with a small capital and proceed as per the experience. Your initial target should have criteria for picking good & valuable stocks to get most of investment.

Singapore News Highlights - 5th Nov 2015

• Singapore shares opened 0.29 per cent or 8.82 points lower at 2,989.68 despite Asian stocks edging higher elsewhere in the region, consolidating recent rises on late gains in Wall Street on Friday and a rebound in the commodities complex.
• Asian stocks climbed after biggest weekly rally since Dec 2011.
• SGX is reviewing companies' compliance with CG Code.
• China Sky's non-executive chairman has resigned.
• Tee International's Q1 profit went up 23.6%.
• SIA plane had collapsed at Changi Airport gate after nose gear retracted during landing gear check.
• OKP unit has won S$12.7m JTC contract.
• Oil edged up on lower US rig count, & weaker dollar.
• IMF urgeed Japan to proceed with second sales tax hike.
• Fed should not raise interest rates just yet- as said by China Finance Minister

Singapore, Hong Kong budgets unveil divergent responses to intensifying challenges

Singapore is big on welfare, while Hong Kong is propped up by tax cuts.

Regional powerhouses Singapore and Hong Kong last week unveiled divergent responses to the intensifying challenges of rising income disparity, the need to strengthen the supply side to underpin growth, and aging populations.

According to Fitch Ratings, Singapore is adopting a more explicitly redistributionist fiscal policy while Hong Kong is introducing tax cuts as part of its latest budget round.

The emphasis of Singapore's growth policy seems to be on strengthening total factor productivity, partly through fiscal incentives. These include extending a wage credit scheme and corporate income tax rebates.

Hong Kong's approach is to boost infrastructure expenditure to deepen the capital stock, while letting the supply side take care of itself to a greater degree. The government's long-term fiscal plan calls for capex to rise by a compound annual growth rate of 9.9% from FY15 to FY19.

Fitch's analysis suggests Hong Kong is spending slightly less on identifiable social items as a percentage of GDP than in 2000, whereas in Singapore the percentage is about the same. The share of expenditures on social items in both has been rising in recent years after dipping in the early 2000s.

Nonetheless, the fiscal positions for both cities are likely to remain significant sources of credit strength over the medium term.

Fitch expects that policymakers will continue to place a high priority on long-term fiscal sustainability.
Hong Kong continues to forecast surpluses through to FY20, which means it will accumulate fiscal reserves in nominal terms over the medium term.

In Singapore, the budget plan includes a deficit of SGD6.7bn in FY15, however non-budget sources of revenue will mean that the overall general government balance will remain in surplus.

It is also notable that both governments have a tendency to budget on the conservative side, and have historically outperformed their fiscal plans. In the case of Singapore, the fiscal balance has outperformed the budget for the past 11 consecutive years.