Wednesday, February 28, 2007
latest news, quoted from Channel Newsasia's biz section:"Singapore shares fall 5.57% in morning trade"SINGAPORE: Singapore share prices fell 5.57 percent in morning trade on Wednesday in line with sharp declines in other key regional bourses, dealers said.World stock markets fell sharply on Tuesday in the worst sell-off in years as concern mounted about a US economic slowdown and the health of the Chinese share markets where Shanghai fell tumbled 8.84 percent.The Straits Times Index ended the Wednesday morning session 180.09 points lower at 3,051.93."Who's behind the rumours in China? Maybe the hedge funds," said Najeeb Jarhom, head of research at Fraser Securities.He said that since Monday the Straits Times Index had dropped about seven percent, compared with a mid-year correction of about 15 percent spread over about six weeks last year."I think this mini-crash could be over quickly," he said."The fundamentals of equities are still not under question."Blue chips were among the big losers, including Singapore Airlines, down 3.70 percent and Singapore Press Holdings down 5.24 percent.Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp was 4.02 percent lower. Tech stocks were also hit, with Venture Corp down 4.23 percent and Creative Technology one of the biggest losers, down 5.34 percent.Japanese share prices tumbled 3.56% in morning trade and Australian shares were down more than two percent, although China stocks recovered to trade in positive territory.Until the decline began on Tuesday, Singapore's Index had risen more than 41 percent since last July.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~this pretty much sums up the negative sentiments that came about after Chinese share prices plunged by such an unprecedented amount.and this crash doesn't appear to be a temporary one, like what the Fraser Securities guy said.i ain't trying to doubt a professional, but let's look at the big picture.true, the fundamentals are definitely firmer this time.but you need to consider the external factors as well.political stability is one.take Iran for example.they never look like they're willing to give up their nuclear programme.with so much tension simmering between them and the West, how can investors be optimistic about the state of the global economy when one wrong move on either side could make the whole situation deteriorate even further?but more significant is the threat of the US economy suffering from a recession.reports show that investors are placing the odds of the American economy slumping into a full-blown recession at one in five. that is, 20%.but can you really afford to be that optimistic?domestic figures haven't been showing positive signs in the first place.fourth quarter GDP growth in 2006 has been revised down to 2% from 3.5%, a clear signal things aren't as rosy as it originally seems to be.i foresee the regional selldown to continue for months to come.at least till end-April.by then, stocks around the world should have fallen to reasonable levels.and another wave of buying will ensue.but investors will surely be more cautious this time round.so as not to get burnt again.remember: this meltdown is already the second within a year.the previous one in May-June last year, due to the central bank in Thailand imposing foreign trading curbs, lasted for six weeks.and this time, the selling will probably be more prolonged than that.
those memories. 14:04
