Our regional strategist screened our coverage universe for potential 2013 turnaround plays in the region. The screening is premised on a better outlook for 2013 as market tail risks are reduced with the easing Eurozone crisis and improving visibility in China. The criteria used are stocks where : 1) DBSVickers' analysts have either Buy / Hold ratings; 2) growth prospects are positive for 2013; 3) 2013 earnings are forecast to return to 2011 levels; and 4) stock prices are at least 30% below 2011 highs. In Singapore, the list included a few big caps like commodity stock Noble Group, global cyclical plays which should benefit if there is a US fiscal consolidation plan ' SIAand NOL, and also stocks with specific catalyst - Tiger Airways and Ezra.

Singapore Airlinesand Virgin Australia have expanded their codeshare agreement to cover all of the latter's Australian domestic destinations, effectively offering SIA customers access to 32 cities in Australia. The move comes barely a month after SIA bought a 10% stake in Virgin Australia for about A$105m. SIA said it intends to further expand codesharing in the coming months to include trans-Tasman flights between Australia and the New Zealand cities of Dunedin, Queenstown and Wellington, subject to regulatory approval.

Passenger traffic at Singapore Changi Airport surpassed the 40 million mark for the first 10 months of this year as 4.27m passengers passed through its gates last month. The October figure was 10% higher than the 3.88m in the same month lastyear, and raises year-to-date passenger traffic at Changi Airport by 9.9% to 41.9m. If traffic for November and December remains unchanged compared with last year, Changi would end the year with more than 50m passenger movements. Last year, 46.7m passengers passed through Changi Airport. Passenger movements on low-cost carriers grew 19.8 per cent in October and 19.4 per cent from January to October. The picture for air cargo, however, was less rosy. Air freight movements in October slid 8% y-o-y to 150,000 tonnes. For the January-to-October period, Changi Airport handled 1.5m tonnes of cargo, down 2.4% y-o-y.

Record price has been set for hotel land in Singapore -$1,167.35 psf ppr. This is for the first hotel development site in Jurong at Jurong Town Hall Road. A state tender drew 11 bids from major players in the industry. The top bid was from RWS, which is also a wholly owned subsidiary of Genting Singapore. The breakeven is estimated to be between $550,000 to $580,000 per room.

US stocks ended flat after a strong surge the previous day, on renewed worries about Europe and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank lacks tools to cushion the US economy from the impact of the "fiscal cliff." He said that the Fed does not have the ability to offset the damage that would result if politicians fail to strike a deal to prevent a series of mandatory tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to go into effect early next year.

Source: DBSV