A quiet session is seen as investors await the outcome of the FOMC meeting and discussions to avert the fiscal cliff continue. All these as optimism spread among investors that China's slowdown has bottomed out and the new leadership focusing on increasing domestic consumption. Anticipation of a better outlook from China can underpin the China beneficiaries on a minor pullback. For the STI, a pullback is remains very possible over the next 1-2 weeks give the recent gains. At yesterday's intra-day high of 3140, STI trades at FY13F PE of 13.7x, which is between the 13.3x (-0.5SD) level at 3050 and the 14.1x (Ave) level of 3250. That is, while valuation is not yet considered expensive, it has moved above fair.

Tiger Airwayscarried more passengers in November compared to a year ago as it ramped up capacity across the group. It posted a 56% y-o-y rise in passenger bookings to 628,000 for the month of November, while capacity rose 32% to 1.15 billion available seat-kilometres (ASK). Group-wide, traffic increased 47% to 977m revenue passenger-kilometres (RPK) while passenger load factor improved eight percentage points to 85%. Tiger Singapore registered a 33% increase in traffic to 721m RPK for the month of November. This comes on the back of a 17% increase in capacity to 852m ASK. Passenger load factor was up 10 percentage points to 85% while the number of passengers carried grew 30% y-o-y to 389,000 passengers. Tiger Australia, which has been reinstating services following the six- week grounding a year earlier, recorded a 110% increase in traffic to 256m RPK while capacity increased 113% to 296m ASK for the month. Maintain BUY, TP: S$0.95.

Sembawang Shipyard, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sembcorp Marine, has been given a "favoured customer contract" by Royal Caribbean Cruises to repair, revitalise, upgrade and provide related marine services to its ships. The contract will include the major revitalization of two ships and a third for drydocking and repairs over January 2013 to 2014, with total sales estimated to range between S$50-70m. Our analyst sees scope for earnings contribution from this particular favoured customer to increase in the longer term given its large cruise ship fleet and SMM's track record in the cruise ship repairs/upgrades and conversion market. Earlier this year, Sembawang Shipyard undertook a US$54m month-long revitalisation of Royal Caribbean's Rhapsody of the Seas.

Swee Hong has secured a contract from Gardens by the Bay worth approximately S$4.9m in relation to the proposed tadpole play garden and other ancillary works to Bay South Garden at Marina Gardens Drive. The commencement date of the contract is 12 December 2012 and the completion date is 28 May 2013.

The Ascott Ltd has strengthened its presence in Indonesia, clinching a management contract for its first Ascott- branded serviced residence in Surabaya. CapitaLand's wholly owned serviced residence business unit will manage Ascott Waterplace Surabaya for Pakuwon Group, one of the largest real estate developers in Indonesia. Ascott Waterplace Surabaya is Ascott's third property in the city, after Citadines Marvell Surabaya and Somerset Surabaya Hotel and Serviced Residence. Ascott runs its operations under three brands - Ascott, Citadines and Somerset. Ascott Waterplace Surabaya is the company's 10th property in Indonesia. Besides Surabaya, Ascott also manages or owns properties in Jakarta.

China's exports growth slowed sharply to a much lower than expected 2.9% in November, underscoring the global headwinds dragging on an economy showing otherwise solid signs of a pick-up in domestic activity. This was below expectations for a 9.0% increase and behind October's 11.6% pace. Imports were unchanged on the year, off forecasts for a 2.0% rise. The trade data represented the weakest performance for exports and imports since August and a contrast to data on the domestic economy, which is raising expectations that seven straight quarters of sliding GDP growth will come to an end in the fourth quarter.

Earlier data released showed that industrial output rose a higher-than-expected 10.1% in November from a year earlier, the fastest pace since March. Electricity output rose 7.9%, the strongest since December. Annual growth in retail sales hit 14.9%, also an eight-month high, while the pace of fixed asset investment, or spending in such areas as bridges, factories and housing, was steady at 20.7% in the first 11 months.

Source: DBSV