Tag Archives: Singapore Property

A call for self-restraint

WHEN National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan warned against property speculation recently, many – especially those in the real estate business – thought he was being a party pooper coming in to spoil the fun.

He had said: “Some of the practices and habits that you saw in the last property boom are beginning to come back, so I think we’ll have to be careful.”

The note of caution was appropriate and timely, given that we are still in the midst of a recession and headed for negative growth at year’s end, despite the strong comeback of the stock and property markets. And look at how crowds continue to throng showflats, sometimes days ahead of the launch.

Greed is back. Continue reading

Making sense of the recent market rally

One important reason for the bullishness is that the market has already discounted much of the bad news

RECENTLY, one of my clients told me he was confused about the significance of the recent market rally. Many of the blue chips such as Singapore Airlines, NOL, SGX and CapitaLand are still making quarterly losses. On top of that, some 47 companies listed on the Singapore Exchange have announced quarterly results with combined earnings lower than the previous quarter.

On the job front, unemployment is still rising. According to the manpower ministry, the worst is not over yet. This is the first time employment has contracted for two consecutive quarters since the 2003 economic downturn.

GDP for 2009 is expected to contract by 4 per cent to 6 per cent. ‘Aren’t all these bad news for the stock market?’ he asked. Over the last four months, equities have done extremely well with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 20 per cent; the Standard and Poor’s 500, 23 per cent; and Continue reading