Warrants Highlight

China Surprise Rate Cut - Twice in 1 Month

Singapore Market Wrap

ECB to cut interest rates to record low?

Yesterday was a mixed day for Asian markets. Shanghai and Japan closed lower while Hong Kong and Singapore added gains. Both the STI and the HSI had a relatively quiet morning and rallied only after the HSI returned from lunch break. The HSI ended the day at 19809.13, up 0.5% while the STI ended the day at 2971.47, up 0.8%. Investors were bullish on the expectations of a 25 basis point interest rate cut, which was scheduled to take place in the late evening.

Call STI 2950MBeCW120831 (QE8W) exercise level 2,950.*
Put STI 2850MBePW120831 (QE9W) exercise level 2,850.*

NOL completes restructuring
Financial year 2011 was a bad one for NOL with the company clocking US$428mil of losses as compared to a profit before tax of US$529mil in 2010. Financial results did not improve when they announced first quarter earnings in May. A loss before tax of US$241mil was reported and shortly after, NOL made plans for restructuring which included selling its HQ building in Alexandra as well as laying off a few hundred staff. This time round, the restructuring will contribute annual cost savings of US$70mil from 2013 onwards.
Investors took this piece of news well and NOL closed at $1.17, up 1.7% dod.

Call warrant NOL MB eCW121203 (QK8W) exercise price $1.10.*

CapitaLand to benefit from China home prices
China's new home prices in June increase for the first time in 10 months, according to a survey done by SouFun Holdings, China's biggest real estate website owner. This is a result of easing funding by lenders and the government pledging to support first-time home buyers.
Asia's largest property company, CapitaLand has more than 34% of its assets in China and the company's performance came up top among all the STI constituents yesterday, closing at $2.90, up 2.84%.

Call warrant CapitalaMBeCW120903 (P0ZW) exercise price $2.582.*
Call warrant CapitalaMBeCW120904 (QC5W) exercise price $2.979.*
Put warrant CapitalaMBePW121203 (QR6W) exercise price $2.60.*

Overnight Market Wrap

Stimulus plans not enough for investors

Yesterday, Europe had an eventful session. Within an hour, ECB met investors' expectations by cutting 25 basis points off interest rates and the People's Bank of China followed suit, decreasing interest rates for the second time this year. The Bank of England pumped in further stimulus to the tune of GBP50bil bringing total stimulus to GBD375bil.

Markets moved higher during the European session with expectations of extensive stimulus plans but were disappointed as some investors were anticipating more aggressive measures from the central banks to curb the debt crisis. Others were worried about the outlook of economic growth. ECB president, Mario Draghi mentioned at a press conference that "the economic growth in the euro area remains weak".

A decrease in initial jobless claims in the US attempted to bring the markets higher but was limited and S&P closed down 0.47%, ending the day at 1367.58. Initial jobless claims fell to 374K from 386K previously.

Overnight Markets

Indices	Last	Change
STI	2971.47	0.8%
HSI	19809.13	0.5%
DJIA	12896.67	-0.4%
S&P 500	1367.58	-0.5%
Nasdaq	2976.12	0.0%
China A50	7736.67	-0.9%

Corporate News

Corporate Announcements

Results announcements:
Thu 19 Jul: Keppel Corp 2Q12
Wed 25 Jul: Biosensors 1Q13
Fri 27 Jul: SGX 4Q12
Thu 2 Aug: SembCorp Marine 2Q12