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Goh Eng Yeow
Markets Correspondent
The angst afflicting investors
October 26, 2009 Monday, 11:30 AM
Goh Eng Yeow on the lacklustre market sentiment.
IT'S been a while since I have written a blog on the stock market. At first glance, nothing much seems to have changed. Except for stock market indexes pressing past key resistance levels in the past two weeks, lots of investors are contented to sit back and let the rally pass them by. As I write, the benchmark Straits Times Index is languishing around Friday's close of 2,715, unable to shake off the lethargy which has afflicted stock markets around the world since August. The bulls have been arguing for a while now that stock prices should continue to move upwards. Investors are earning nothing, keeping their money in the bank, with interest rates at close to zero levels. And with the greenback showing no signs of revival against regional currencies, it is attractive for investment banks and hedge funds to borrow more heavily in US dollar to make even bigger bets in the region’s stock markets. But a report by Citigroup this morning shows that foreign fund managers' attention seems to be fixated elsewhere. "About US$781 million (S$1.09 billion) of new money flowed to offshore Asian funds last week. But this was less than one-third of the global emerging market funds, 37 per cent below global funds and even 10 per cent smaller than the amount taken in by Latin American funds whose assets under management are just one-fourth of Asian funds," it observes. So what is holding back foreign funds from making bigger bets here? Citigroup believes that the problem stems from the large number of cash-calls made by companies as they strengthen, or repair, their balance sheets after the recent massive financial fire-storm. "Over the past three months, total cash-calls (both IPOs and secondaries) reached US$54 billion in Asia ex-Japan, which was 3.6 times the funds raised in Latin America, emerging Europe, Middle East and South Africa added together." By coincidence, both ST and BT highlight today the large number of share placements made by Singapore firms this year. I suppose that it is prudent house-keeping for management to make hay while the sun shines by raising money in whatever way they can – and share placements seem to be the easiest route currently – as there is no guarantee that the going may get tougher going forward.
But the discount is so big in some cases – loss-making bio-technology play Transcu gave new investors a eye-popping 38 per cent discount to last traded price – that it arouses unhappiness among existing shareholders. With such share placements, these shareholders not only fail to get a bite of the cherry, but find that their existing shareholdings are diluted in percentage terms as well. With the end of the year approaching in just over two months, I expect the "watchful peace" in the stock market to continue for a while yet. At the start of the year, I wrote that the stock market mood was so bleak that dealers were wishing that the clock could, at that instant, strike at midnight on Dec 31, 2009 just to get the year over with. Today, many must be wishing that the current year never comes to a clsoe, as this could mean the end of the stock market party. Tags: bulls, dollar, index, investors, ipo, market, stocks 
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the angst afflicting voters......
The Singapore Democrats have been censored again by the mass media. The Today newspaper ran a story about opposition parties and their views on the upcoming general elections. It completely left out the SDP even though we had replied to the reporter's questions.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated occurence as far as the local press is concerned. The Singapore Press Holdings and Mediacorps seem to have an understanding that news about the Singapore Democrats must be blacked out.
For example, Channel News Asia did a report earlier this year on how political parties were using the Internet to spread their messages. The story mentioned only the PAP and Workers' Party (WP), completely ignoring the SDP even though we have been at the forefront of using the new media. (See here)
Not to be outdone, the Straits Times published a report about the Reform Party's first anniversary dinner held in September this year. It mentioned the attendance of other opposition parties but left out the Singapore Democrats.
And when it does mention the SDP it publishes falsehoods. For example, Lianhe Zaobao in 2008 reported that this website was losing readers because of the extremist views that the party had taken when in fact the opposite was true. (See here)
In July this year Ms Mavis Toh from the Straits Times emailed the party and submitted questions about the SDP's Young Democrats because she was "working on an article regarding youth wings in singapore's political parties." As far as we know, the story never appeared.
A month later another Straits Times journalist, Mr Cai Haoxiang, emailed the SDP and again wanted to do "a story on what youth wings of political parties in Singapore are doing for National Day."
Again the SDP emailed the reporter the information and again no story appeared.
The latest incident happened when Mr Zul Othman of Today emailed the SDP a set of questions about the party's plans for the GE. We replied to the email and alerted the reporter to our response on this website. But nothing appeared in the newspaper's report about the SDP's comments. (See here)
If it happens once, it is very possible that events had overtaken or that the story had to be killed for some legitimate reason other than censorship. But when it happens repeatedly where information is sought but not published, is it not reasonable to suspect that the state media may be just fishing for information?
None of the journalists mentioned above got back to the SDP to explain why the information were not used.
Even though party members have been hard at work on the ground visiting estates in Toa Payoh, Bishan, Bukit Panjang and other vicinity, there is precious little coverage of what we do. When we achieve pioneering political work in cyberspace, the media refuses to report them.
In contrast when the PAP gets in on the online action a few years late, announcing last week that it would use new media tools in its campaign, it gets front page headlines.
The question that must be asked is: Why is the PAP-media bent on blacking out news about the Singapore Democrats? Is there something that the SDP is doing that is threatening the PAP's hold on power?
But the funny thing is that despite the media blackout, or maybe because of it, more people are joining the Singapore Democrats. This is due to our use of the Internet to reach out to Singaporeans. We are determined to bypass the state-controlled media and reach out directly to the people via the new media.
Boy with the blue book: Its called democracy. It is different as it is special.. ..a sort of democracy..Uniquely Singaporean ........for any of us to sound off.
Alas, there are none so blind as those who cannot see.
Some, it seems cannot see.
btw..when did you last really, really, really vote...like standing in a polling booth and ticking a box!
Come on balderdashman, the article you posted is totally flawed. Democracy in those country is different from Singapore. You want more oppositions in Singapore but are our opposition in Singapore that good. If Dr Chee were to get voted into Parliament , I would pack my stuff that run away. What we need is quality candidates and I don't care how many PAP members there are in parliament so long as I can pay my bills. Please grow up and stop having such myopic views. What Singaporeans want is a safe and prosper environment to live in. Anyhow please be aware that Mr. Goh Eng Yeow article is about the general economic environment so if you do not have any constructive response, please keep your comment to yourself.
If we observe the market, it doesn't make much sense. The stock market shouldn't rise so much when the economy is down. Even rallies don't last that long in a bear market. The only possibility for the rallies is due to the low bank rates and I don't think it will last forever because we never know when the big investors will pull the plug. It is important to know that we should never rush into the market just because things are looking good. Let's be aware that the market frequently suffers from "P.M.S". Therefore we should leave it to the fortune tellers to time the market.
Am I missing something or what?
THIS is news!
One must wonder what the world's press think of Singapore!!
Law Minister Mr K. Shanmugam said in a speech in New York that Singapore's low -ranking for press freedom is absurd.
C'mon....133rd out of 175 countries is good. It could have been worse, all things considered, don't you think?
He went on to say.."Our approach on press reporting is simple: The press can criticize us, our policies. We do not seek to condemn that."
Er..helloo..first..where is there press freedom in Singapore?
Second, WHEN..ever did we EVER read of the Straits Times EVER criticising the government?
Which ST cronie would even consider writing such a piece let alone have the guts to show it to his Editor who in turn will do the only thing..and bin it.
And what then will become of the hapless ST reporter?
What of his CPF, his home, his job and his life ....all down the tube in one fell swoop.
C'mon, pull the other leg!!
When oh when...will our government and the media stop insulting our intelligence!!
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