US market was flat last night as investors digested another round of earnings reports and looked ahead to President Obama's State of the Union address in the evening. The president is expected to focus on the economy, jobs and the budget, while also speaking about gun control and immigration. Despite the flat performance, Dow is now less than 200pts from its all time high in Oct 07. For the STI, we see immediate resistance at 3320.

4Q12 results for ComfortDelgrowere within expectations, ending FY12 a record year. Final DPS of 3.5 Scts was declared, equating to yield of 3.4% for FY12. Capex requirements are projected to taper off in FY14F, and we remain hopeful that dividend payout could increase. Balance sheet remains strong to pursue inorganic growth. ComfortDelgro is trading at lower valuations compared with SMRT despite geographical exposure. It also offers stable growth. Maintain BUY, TP: S$2.05.

Sound Global has won the bid for the Water Supply Facility Project in Nanshan Sub-District, Quangang District, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, PRC. The total investment is approximately RMB95.02m.

Mermaid Maritimehas secured a contract extension with an existing client, an international upstream oil and gas company, for accommodation barge support services in Indonesia. The duration of this contract extension is around 5 months and has a potential value of USD 4.7m.

Kitchen Cultureis expected to record a net loss for FY12 mainly attributable to losses arising from its newly started joint venture entity in Hong Kong and losses from its wholly-owned subsidiary in Malaysia due to a decrease in retail revenue as a result of the general slowdown and uncertainties in the global economy, coupled with higher selling and distribution expenses.

Hanwell Holdingsis expected to report a loss for FY12 mainly due to allowance for stock obsolescence and doubtful debts, and impairment losses.

Sinostar PEC Holdingsis expected to report a significant loss for FY12. The estimated loss is mainly due to an increase in the cost of raw materials and the uncorrelated decrease in the sale price of its products.

Weiye Holdings is expected to report a considerably lower net profit for FY12 mainly due to the decrease in the Group's revenue compared to the prior financial year as a result of the weak market demand for the Group's property business arising from the series of market cooling measures implemented by the PRC government.

Resale volumes for private residential homes jumped 16.7% m-o-m to hit 920 transactions in January, as buyers rushed to complete transactions before the new property cooling measures kicked in. The number was almost three times the 309 resale transactions seen in January last year. Driven by bargain hunters, suburban home sales in the outside central region (OCR) saw the greatest increase in resale volume, rising 30% to 501 units; transactions of homes in the city fringe (rest of central region or RCR) increased by 17% to 229. Conversely, resale volumes for homes in the core central region (CCR) declined 9% to 190 units in January.

Three industrial sites drew bids on the top end of expectations, reflecting continued strong demand, even as the speculative element has been sieved out. The first site, a 3.96-hectare plot with a 30-year tenure and maximum gross plot ratio (GPR) of 1.4, drew a top bid of $61m, or $102.18 psf ppr from Soon Hock Group. When the site was launched in December last year, the market was expecting a top bid of $50-$95 psf ppr. The second site, a 0.3-ha parcel in Tuas South Street 8 (Plot 10), drew a total of 13 bids, with top bid of $2.4m ($73.45 psf ppr). The last site, a 0.35-ha plot at Ubi Avenue 4 with a 30-year lease and GPR of 2.5 drew 10 bids, with top bid of $16.2m ($172.00 psf ppr).

China's imports and exports surged last month while inflation dipped. Exports grew 25% in January after rising 14.1% the previous month. Imports jumped 28.8% against 6% in December. The trade surplus rose 7.7% y-o-y to US$29.2bn for the month.

Source: DBSV