arrants Highlight

Bumitama Surging Beyond $1 Level

Singapore Market Wrap

World's second largest economy faces hardship

As reported on The Straits Times, Premier Wen Jiabao warned that China's economic rebound is not stable and that the country may face hardships going forward. However, he mentioned that stabilising economic growth is the government's "top priority" and that the government should implement "structural tax reductions, encourage and guide private investment, nurture emerging industries and upgrade production capacity".

The sentiments were mixed in the Asian markets with some investors being more concerned over the slowing economic growth while others remained optimistic that China may stimulate economy.

The STI closed at 2998.75, up 0.1% day-on-day (dod).

Call STI 2950MBeCW120831 (QE8W) exercise level 2,950.*
Call STI 3200MBeCW130328 (Q0QW) exercise level 3,200.*
Put STI 2850MBePW120831 (QE9W) exercise level 2,850.*
Put STI 2700MBePW130328 (Q0RW) exercise level 2,700.*

Palm oil shortage brightens prospects for CPO-linked companies
The commodity and resources sector did relatively well yesterday, with Wilmar being one of the top movers in the STI. With the hot and dry weather in the US, there are concerns in the markets over the adequacy of oilseed supplies meeting demand, especially if bad weather persists. Hence, palm oil has been rising steadily since mid June.

A shortage of oilseed supply is good news for oil palm producers like Wilmar and Bumitama, which will be able to benefit from higher selling prices.

Wilmar closed at $3.59, up 1.1% dod.
Bumitama closed at $1.085, up 2.4% dod.

Call warrant Wilmar MBeCW121203 (QP2W) exercise price $4.00.*
Put warrant Wilmar MBePW130103 (QZ4W) exercise price $3.50.*

Call warrant Bumitama MBeCW120903 (P9FW) exercise price $1.00.*
Call warrant Bumitama MBeCW130103 (Q0VW) exercise price $1.25.*

Private housing transactions fall
The number of private houses sold in June fell by 19.4% as compared to May, according to the data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). Developers sold 1,371 private houses in June as compared to 1,702 units sold in May. This is the second consecutive month the number of private houses sold has decreased.

This did not go down too well with Investors and property developer Capitaland closed at $2.94, down 0.3% dod. Yanlord closed at $1.315, down 0.8% dod.

Call warrant CapitalaMBeCW120904 (QC5W) exercise price $2.979.*
Call warrant CapitalaMBeCW130103 (Q0MW) exercise price $3.00.*
Put warrant CapitalaMBePW121004 (P5OW) exercise price $2.979.*

Call warrant Yanlord MBeCW121204 (QY2W) exercise price $1.20.*
Call warrant Yanlord MBeCW121002 (P8LW) exercise price $1.40.*

Overnight Market Wrap

Disappointing data yet again

After market hours, Moody's cut the ratings of deposits and long term debts of 10 Italian banks and the Issuer ratings of 3 other Italian Financial Institutions because of Italy's weakened creditworthiness. This series of rate cuts comes shortly after Italy's bond ratings were lowered to Baa2 from A3 last week. Out of the 13 banks affected, 6 fell two levels while the other 7 fell 1 level.

In the US, retail sales fell by 0.5% mom, which was unexpected given that analysts predicted an increase of 0.2%. The disappointing results brought the retailers in the S&P down by 0.8% and implied that the "limited employment gains is taking its toll on the biggest part of the economy", as quoted from Bloomberg. Because of the global economic slowdown, the IMF lowered its 2013 economic growth forecast to 3.9%, down from 4.1%.

The S&P closed at 1353.64, down 0.23% dod.

Overnight Markets

Indices	Last	Change
STI	2998.75	0.1%
HSI	19121.34	0.1%
DJIA	12727.21	-0.4%
S&P 500	1353.64	-0.2%
Nasdaq	2896.94	-0.4%
China A50	7617.96	-1.6%

Corporate News

Corporate Announcements

Results announcements:
Thu 19 Jul: Keppel Corp 2Q12
Wed 25 Jul: Biosensors 1Q13, SIA 1Q13
Fri 27 Jul: SGX 4Q12
Mon 1 Aug: Cosco 2Q12
Thu 2 Aug: SembCorp Marine 2Q12, OCBC 2Q12
Tue 7 Aug: UOB 2Q12
Tue 14 Aug: IndoFood Agri 2Q12

Ex-dividend dates:
Mon 6 Aug: SingTel ($0.09 final)