US equity indices ended mixed yesterday, reacting little to Barrack Obama's State of the Union address. For Singapore, currently trades at just a tat above 14.13x (average) FY13F PE. In the absence of a firm upward revision in forward earnings, we continue to see the likelihood for the STI to switch to a much more gradual net increase going forward (compared to the 355pt rally in the past 3 months). Interest should turn more selective and not broad based. Singapore infrastructure building theme should continue to be of interest. Besides the current reporting season, the Singapore 2013 budget will be announced in about 2 weeks time.

SingTel's underlying profit of S$874m (-2% y-o-y, -1% q-o-q) released this morning was 3% below our estimate of S$900m, due to weaker Telkomsel & Globe. Bharti was weak along the expected lines. Singapore and Australia are inline although both markets face long term challenges, including loss of market share in corporate data and start-up losses in Singapore, aggressive Telstra and expensive 4G spectrum auction in Australia. FY13F earnings growth could enter into negative territory now with 4.7% yield as the only attraction. Will follow-up with more updates.

Malaysia's Jan13 palm oil stock dipped on seasonally lower output and strong exports. We expect seasonally lower yields to reduce Feb13 palm oil output to 1.297m MT. Palm oil inventory is expected to remain above 2m MT for the rest of the year. Accumulate Bumitama Agri (BUY, TP: S$1.25) and First Resources (HOLD, TP: S$2.18) on weakness.

Cordlife reported an 18.4% y-o-y increase in revenue to S$17.0m in HY2013. The increase in revenue was mainly due to an increase in the number of client deliveries, from approximately 3,800 in HY2012 to 4,500 in HY2013. The increase in client deliveries was due to increased awareness as a result of an increase in marketing and promotional activities undertaken by the Group. Gross profit margin remained stable at approximately 70%. Net profit for HY2013 surged >100% to S$8.4m, boosted by gain on disposal of associate.

Civmec reported a 34.7% y-o-y rise in 2Q FY2013 revenue to S$100.1m, due to higher activities in the Oil & Gas and Mining and Other segments. On a six monthly basis, revenue increased by 102.8% y-o-y to S$239.4m. Gross profit margin was lower, decreasing from 19.5% to 18.9% in 2Q FY2013 due to the different nature of the jobs undertaken, which have higher average value and longer terms but with lower gross profit margins. Correspondingly, gross margins decreased from 22.1% during the first six months of FY2012 to 15.6% during the first six months of FY2013. Net profit rose by 40.6% y-o-y to S$9.6m in 2Q. On a six-monthly basis, net profit amounted to S$18.3m, representing an increase of 52.3% y-o-y.

Stratech Systemsproposes to issue S$506,000 in aggregate principal amount of redeemable 10.0% convertible bonds. The Bonds, maturing 12 months after the date of issue, will not be listed on the SGX. The conversion price will be at S$0.023 per conversion share.

Memtech Internationalexpects to report a loss for FY Dec12 mainly to: (i) The significantly lower demand for mobile phone keypads; and (ii) The impairment charge on fixed assets pertaining to the touch screen operation.

Source: DBSV