The selling that affected the rest of the world, especially emerging markets, finally appears to take its toll on US equities. The Dow has lost 560pts since Ben Bernanke's comments on QE tapering on Wednesday night while prior to that, it barely moved a whisper from May 22. The bond market sold off as well with the US 10-year bond yields rising to 2.428%. In Singapore, the MAS 10-year bond yield is currently at 2.35%. The reaction downward momentum means that the 3100 level can be broken to the downside. The next support level below that is at 3030. We are watchful of a technical rebound off that level as the Singapore market would be trading at below 13.1x (-0.5SD) 12-mth forward PE.

CapitaLand was the top bid for a 99-year leasehold site at Coronation Road, with a bid of $366m, or $908.17 psf of land, 17% higher than its closest rival. CapitaLand plans to develop a prestigious landed development comprising semi-detached houses and bungalows on this site. The development will be ready for launch around Q2 of 2014.

The site is located near a Good Class Bungalow (GCB) area. Recent transacted prices of landed houses in this location ranged from $1,280 psf to $1,830 psf of land. It is also within walking distance to Farrer Road MRT and the future Tan Kah Kee MRT station.

The Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) said that it will not object to SIA'sproposed increase of its stake in Virgin Australia to 19.9%. FIRB approval will enable SIA to complete the purchase of an additional 255.5m shares in Virgin Australia at 48 Australian cents per share, for a total consideration of A$122.6m. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of next week.

Mencast Holdingsannounced that its Energy Division has won two separate contracts from the Asian headquarters of an oil Supermajor. The contracts are expected to contribute positively to the Group.

Ryobi Kiso Holdingshad secured additional new contracts worth S$37.3m, bringing the total contracts secured to S$55.4m since 1 January 2013.

Foreland Fabrictechis expected to report a significant drop in revenue and a loss for 2Q 2013. The relocation of the existing production facilities from the current factory site to the new production facility, which commenced in Dec 12, has been completed in Jun 13.

Singapore's tourism industry may not appear to be hurting as yet but a prolonged period of haze could spell trouble for the industry during the July-Aug peak holiday season. The Singapore Flyer, which was placed into receivership last month, said it was closing to protect its employees, many of whom work outdoors.

China's flash HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for June dropped to a nine-month low, pointing to continuing weakness in local and external demand. The data came in at 48.3, under the 50-point mark demarcating expansion from contraction, for the second straight month and below consensus expectations. It raised doubts whether the world's second largest economy will miss its full-year growth target of 7.5%. All sub-indexes declined last month, and now stands below 50. The new export orders index plunged 4.9 points to 44 as China's small and medium-sized enterprises struggle with faltering growth in the eurozone and the United。

Source: DBSV