31 December 2010

Stock market has been rather "stable" this month. STI was in positive territory whole month. Worry in the Euro-zone did not affect the market too much, similarly the Korean situation, and the icy winter in Europe and America. Even the latest interest rate hike in China did not hit the market badly. Figures released by US government indicated the recovery is on track, so global stock market advanced. DOW hit 2-year high a few times.

STI advanced and hit 3,200 after Christmas. It eventually close at 3,190.04 today, or (45.34 points) 1.44% higher compared to End-November. My portfolio performed even better. Its value rose 2.76% this month, net of fund invested.

I bought First Reit this month. I received Bonus shares from ASL Marine. On the dividend side, December has always been a "bonus" month for me. I received S$9,700 in cash dividend.

The list of top 30 holdings has little change. Suntec Reit came back and squeezes SingTel out of the list. KepCorp and Sembmarine advanced due to price surge over the last few days.

1.    SPH
2 .   OCBC Bk
3.    Semb Corp
4 .   ComfortDelGro
5.    DBS
6.    ST Engineering
7.    F & N
8.    SP AusNet
9.    SIA
10.  SembMar
11.  Starhub
12.  CoscoCorp
13.  SGX
14.  Kep Corp
15.  CapitaLand
16.  CitySpring
17.  Noble Group
18.  FraserComm
19.  SATS
20.  MetroHldg
21.  DBS STI ETF 100
22.  Yangzijiang
23.  MacqIntInfra
24.  CapitaComm
25.  MapletreeLog
26.  FrasersCT
27.  AscottReit
28.  KS Energy
29.  UE
30.  SuntecReit

Come next year, I will go more defensive in my investment as STI is already quite high. Objective will be to increase my passive income through dividend.

30 November 2010

The stock market started well in November. STI closed above 3300 on 8th and 9th November. Unfortunately the market lost steam after that. major incidents afftecting the market are: Euro Zone debt crisis, China's measure to cool property market, Conflict between South and North Korea.

Affected by the above, market gave up the gain in early month, and closed eventually almost flat, only 2 points above last month-end. My portfolio, however, faired worst than that. As at 30 November, it is 0.3% lower than 31 October level.

I did not invest very much this month. At the first half of the month, as the STI was high, I didn't try to purchase any share. Subsequently, when prices soften, I tried to queue for some dividend stock, but was not successful. The only investment made this month was the participation in script dividend scheme from Cambridge industrial trust and OCBC. Another reason for not investing was I was tied up with my work this month.

I received S$3,600 in dividend this month. Below are the top 30 holdings. There isn't much changes compared with last month(no change in first 11 positions). SingTel replaced Suntec.

1.   SPH
2.   OCBC Bk
3.   Semb Corp
4.   ComfortDelGro
5.   DBS
6.   ST Engineering
7.   F & N
8.   SP AusNet
9.   SIA
10. Starhub
11. SGX
12. SembMar
13. CoscoCorp
14. CitySpring
15. CapitaLand
16. FraserComm
17. Kep Corp
18. Noble Group
19. SATS
20. MetroHldg
21. DBS STI ETF 100
22. Yangzijiang
23. CapitaComm
24. MacqIntInfra
25. MapletreeLog
26. AscottReit
27. FrasersCT
28. KS Energy
29. UE
30. SingTel

29 October 2010

STI gained further ground in the month of October, even touched briefly the 3200 height. It finally closed at 3142.62. Compared with Septermber End, it rose 44.99 points, or by 1.45%. My portfolio value grew slightly better than STI. It rose by 1.68%, net of the funds injetted and dividend received.

I invested S$16,500 this month, which I used to buy K-Green, participated in the IPO of MIT and GLP, right issue and preferential offering of AscottReit, Mapletree Logistics Trust,AmpSampIReit, and Script Dividend Scheme of DBS.

I received S$900 in cash dividend and S$180 in SRS.

The top 30 holdings have little change, besides some position swopping. The only new comer is AscottReit. It replaces SingTel due to new buy in. Below are the top 30 holdings:

1.   SPH
2.   OCBC Bk
3.   Semb Corp
4.   ComfortDelGro
5.   DBS
6.   ST Engineering
7.   F & N
8.   SP AusNet
9.   SIA
10. Starhub
11. SGX
12. CitySpring
13. CapitaLand
14. SembMar
15. CoscoCorp
16. FraserComm
17. Kep Corp
18. SATS
19. DBS STI ETF 100
20. MetroHldg
21. Yangzijiang
22. Noble Group
23. CapitaComm
24. MacqIntInfra
25. MapletreeLog
26. AscottReit
27. FrasersCT
28. KS Energy
29. SuntecReit
30. UE

Comparing the top 30 holdings in October and the one in January, one can see that my portfolio is moving towards more defensive and dividend play, which is the direction I set for the year. Going forwards, I shall continue in this direction, as I have achieve the objective set for portfolio value for the year, and see a good chance in achieving the target set for dividend income.

Two Times Lucky in IPO Application

I am not particularly interested in IPO's, as I thought the chances of getting them is very low, but the GLP and MIT IPO's created so much talk in town that I decided to give them a try. No harm tikam tikam....

To my surprise, I was successful in both application. So now I have two more counters in addition to my already "messy" portfolio. :)

30 September 2010

Global equity had a good show in this month. One analyst said even this is the "best September since 1939". Unfortunately the advancing of stock prices lost steam in the last few days of the month. Though STI failed to end the month above the pschological 3,100 point, I should be satisfied with my portfolio performance in September.

All counters but 1 ended above or level last month-end. Portfolio value increase by 6.07%(net of dividend and fresh fund invested), compared to end of August. In the same period STI rose 4.99%. I received S$4,059 in cash dividend, which I reinvested. I topped up Metro Holdings, and bought into Cache Reit. I was also awarded some Cambridge shares through script dividend scheme. Besides the dividend, I invested another 5K.
Below are the top 30 holdings, not much change, only UE replaced AscottReit (swop position).

1.   SPH
2.   OCBC Bk
3.   ComfortDelGro
4.   Semb Corp
5.   DBS
6.   ST Engineering
7.   F & N
8.   SP AusNet
9.   SIA
10. SGX
11. Starhub
12. CapitaLand
13. CitySpring
14. CoscoCorp
15. FraserComm
16. SATS
17. SembMar
18. DBS STI ETF 100
19. Noble Group
20. MetroHldg
21. Kep Corp
22. CapitaComm
23. Yangzijiang
24. MacqIntInfra
25. FrasersCT
26. KS Energy
27. MapletreeLog
28. SingTel
29. SuntecReit
30. UE

I have also applied for AscottReit Preferential shares and AimSampIReit rights shares. Next month I intend to participate in MLT Preferential shares issue and MIT and GIC IPO. Maybe worth to record is I applied for SIA bond also.

Investing in Unittrust - My experience so far

This is a re-count of my UT investment journey. I am speaking from my own experience and it should not be taken as an expert advice.

I started investing in UT in the year 2000.During that period I made some advance in my career and had some spare cash, so I was looking for ways to invest the cash and prepare for retirement.

Seeing some of my friends got burnt badly from the 1997 financial crisis (especially from Clob), I thought that direct investment in the share market was too riskly for me and UT might be a better way. The first fund I bought was UOB Telecommunication Fund, recommended by my  bank RM. Soon after that I learned to buy UT online, and I started to invest in some Tech funds. When the tech bubble burst later of the year, I suffered some lost. During the same period I bought DBS Eight (D) and gave the bank a standing instruction to RSP monthly. Through my RM I also participated in StandChart's UT investment scheme. This is a unique investment plan where the bank will review my UT holding quarterly, and switch those non-performing UT to buy the "top performing UT"(forgot the scheme name) according to pre-set criteria.

I stopped the DBS Eight RSP in 2003 and sold the fund. Though the price has not recovered to the original price, I made a small profit of more than 10% due to RSP. StandChart also stopped the UT Savings schemen because they realised that most portfolios of their customers had become so messy that were difficult to manage. When the scheme stopped, I had more than 15 funds. With the help of the RM I consolidated them into 5. The profit after 3 years was around 20%.

Meanwhile, I bought other funds using the FSM platform. Believing that diversification was the way to go, I worked out a "asset allocation plan" based on geographical division and bought funds that invest in different region.

Things when on quite well and I saw my wealth increasing... until late 2007. When the global financial crisis sent the global equity tumbling.

As the global economy recovers from the crisis, my UT portfolio also recovered. The continuing buying of funds during the downturn help the recovery. Recently I did some adjustment to the UT portfolio, cutting down the number of funds in the porfolio, consolidate funds invested in similar regions. In order to do this, I did a comparison of performance of individual funds.

I have drawn some conclusions from this exercise.

1. In today's investment climate, diversification is less effective, as the world economy is so intertwined. UT itself is already a diversified investment, so there is no need to "over-diversified"

2. "Asset allocation" principle is good, but don't do it blindly.

3. RSP is a good way to protect against fructuation of market.

4. Out of the funds I have (and had), the most consistent performers are those which pay out dividends. Reinvestment of dividend itself helps to ride over the price fructuation.

As said before, this is only my own investment experience. Right or wrong, you decide.

Review Investment Strategy - some thoughts

As I celebrated my 52th birthday last month, It came to my mind that its time to take stock and review the few important aspects of my life: Career/Retirement, investment/finance. Let's talk about investment first.

By the grace of God, the world economy came out from the financial crisis pretty fast. In the same manner, my investment portfolio survived the crisis. Today, the value more than doubled from the pre-crisis level. As at this month, I have achieved an important investment milestone. Right now, I am resisting the temptation to set another higher target for myself, as this will mean no end to this cycle.

On the other hand, I could stay relatively unaffected by the financial crisis because I have a stable job with good income. This enable me to continue investing when market crashed in 2007/08/09. Now that the investment time horizon is getting shorter, and should there be any change to the career plan, investment plan will need to be adjusted accordingly. In the coming months, I will:

1. Slow down share buying further. Only go for stocks with good dividend payout.
2. Review my stock portfolio and get rid of stocks that are not performing (my definition of not performing is not moving in stock price, and not paying or only paying very little dividend. )
3. Build up more cash portion.
4. Look for opportunity to invest in good corporate bond with high yield (like the recent NOL bond with yield >4%)

31 August 2010

Despite the good results reported by most of the listed companies, stock market did not perform well in August. This was largely due to the uncertainty in US, caused by bad numbers in housing market and unemployment rate. In fact the good corporate performance locally helped to keep the drop in check.

My portfolio under perform the STI in August. While STI dropped 1.25% to 2,950.33 point, my portfolio, net of fresh fund injected, dropped 2.33%. I bought into CWT, Stamford Land and K-Green this month.

On the dividend side, I received S$4,658 in cash and 780 in CPF-OA. Below are the top 30 holdings as at 31 August.

1.   SPH
2.   OCBC Bk
3.   ComfortDelGro
4.   Semb Corp
5.   DBS
6.   ST Engineering
7.   F & N
8.   SIA
9.   SP AusNet
10. Starhub
11. CapitaLand
12. CitySpring
13. SGX
14. SATS
15. SembMar
16. CoscoCorp
17. FraserComm
18. DBS STI ETF 100
19. Kep Corp
20. CapitaComm
21. Yangzijiang
22. MacqIntInfra
23. Noble Group
24. FrasersCT
25. KS Energy
26. MetroHldg
27. MapletreeLog
28. SingTel
29. SuntecReit
30. AscottReit

There was not much change in the top holdings. UE was replaced by SuntecReit. UE now stood at 31st position.
 
Going forwards, if the market continues to move side way, I will try to build up my cash position and wait for good opportunities to further expand my portfolio. One opportunity is the rights issue from AIMSAMPIREIT. I plan to participate and apply for excess rights to build up this counter.

30 July 2010

To a trader, the month of July might have been a boring month. Stock market was quite "quiet", trading volume has been low the whole month. Many blamed it on the football world cup. Personally I don't mind a month like this. STI has been cripping higher slowly amid the low trading volume.

Throughout the whole month, STI moved up 152.19 points, or 5.37%. My portfolio moved almost inline with STI, up 6.25%. The higher percentage was due to new investment. I participated in DBS script dividend scheme, exercise warrants of Metro, and topped up Noble Group.

No other dividend except DBS was received this month. Below are the top 30 holdings as at 30 Jul 2010. There is very little change except Noble replaced SMRT, due to new purchase of the shares.

1.   SPH
2.   OCBC Bk
3.   ComfortDelGro
4.   DBS
5.   Semb Corp
6.   ST Engineering
7.   F & N
8.   SIA
9.   SP AusNet
10. CitySpring
11. CapitaLand
12. Starhub
13. SGX
14. SAT Svcs
15. SembMar
16. CoscoCorp
17. FraserComm
18. Kep Corp
19. DBS STI ETF 100
20. Noble Group
21. MacqIntInfra
22. CapitaComm
23. Yangzijiang
24. KS Energy
25. FrasersCT
26. MetroHldg
27. MapletreeLog
28. SingTel
29. AscottReit
30. UE

30 June2010

From the big drop in May, market faired better in June. The upside was limited by the uncertainty in the US and European recovery, and by the Football World Cup tournament in South Africa. STI closed at 2835.51, up 2.92% from end of May.

My portfolio under performed the market this month. The value rose 2.6%, but this included the fund (S$5400) invested in the month. I receive S$3041 in cash dividend, which I re-invested in the market in the form of script dividend scheme (OCBC, Cambridge)or top-up(Pan United). I also received 400 K-Green Trust shares from KepCorp.

Below are the top 30 holding as at 30 June. Interestingly, this is the first time when there was no change in the list, lest some positional changes.

1.   SPH
2.   OCBC Bk
3.   ComfortDelGro
4.   DBS
5.   Semb Corp
6.   ST Engineering
7.   F & N
8.   SIA
9.   SP AusNet
10. CitySpring
11. Starhub
12. SGX
13. CapitaLand
14. SembMar
15. SAT Svcs
16. FraserComm
17. CoscoCorp
18. Kep Corp
19. DBS STI ETF 100
20. MacqIntInfra
21. CapitaComm
22. KS Energy
23. Yangzijiang
24. FrasersCT
25. MapletreeLog
26. SingTel
27. MetroHldg
28. AscottReit
29. SMRT
30. UE

31 May 2010

Volcano Ash, Eurozone debt crisis, China's measure to curb overheating property market, tension between the two Koreas, bloody protest in Thailand, all these bad news come together made May the worst month for the stock market in the past 18(?) months. STI plunged more than 320 points from last month-end to 2650 on 25 May. It has since recovered slightly and stood at 2,752.60. Compared to 30 Apr, it is 222 points or 8% lower.

My portfolio value dropped about 8.97% this month, thus underperforming STI. Only consolation is the S$12,000 cash dividend received, which I reinvested together with the proceed I received from sale of SSH shares. I bought FSL Trust, Lee Metal, Noble, SIA, SPH, Sing Inv and DBS STI ETF (using SRS) this month.

Below are the top 30 holdings. SSH, Pac Andes and Sp Ship were replaced by DBS STI ETF100, KS Energy and SMRT.

1.   SPH
2.   OCBC Bk
3.   ComfortDelGro
4.   DBS
5.   Semb Corp
6.   ST Engineering
7.   SP AusNet
8.   F & N
9.   SIA
10. CitySpring
11. SGX
12. CapitaLand
13. Starhub
14. SembMar
15. SAT Svcs
16. FraserComm
17. Kep Corp
18. DBS STI ETF 100
19. CoscoCorp
20. KS Energy
21. MacqIntInfra
22. CapitaComm
23. FrasersCT
24. Yangzijiang
25. MapletreeLog
26. UE
27. MetroHldg
28. SingTel
29. AscottReit
30. SMRT

Look forward to a better performing Jund....:)

SSH Corporation

Under KS Energy's privatisation plan for SSH and Aqua Terra, my SSH shares are gone wef today. For every SSH shares I receive 0.1 KS Energy share and S$0.16. If consider S$1.25 as KS Energy share price, then I made a small profit of 6%, excluding the dividends received from the past 3 years.

30 April 2010

Global stock market continues its advances in most of April. However in the last week of the month, market experienced some turbulance due to trouble in the EuroZone. STI briefly went above 3000 but ended the month below (2974.61). Good GDP forecast and corporate earnings should help to sustain the uptrend in the coming months.

As a whole, the portfolio is doing well in this month. net of the funds injetted, portfolio rose about 4%.  I bought Popular, FSL shipping trust and top up MIIF this month.

Below are the top 30 holdings. There isn't much changes, except MIIF re-entered the list due to top up and Aztech dropped off, as share price dropped after XD.

1.   SPH
2.   ComfortDelGro
3.   OCBC Bk
4.   DBS
5.   Semb Corp
6.   ST Engineering
7.   SP AusNet
8.   F & N
9.   SGX
10. CitySpring
11. Starhub
12. CapitaLand
13. SembMar
14. CoscoCorp
15. SAT Svcs
16. Kep Corp
17. FraserComm
18. MacqIntInfra
19. SIA
20. CapitaComm
21. SSH Corp
22. FrasersCT
23. Yangzijiang
24. MapletreeLog
25. UE
26. Pac Andes
27. MetroHldg
28. AscottReit
29. SingTel
30. Sp Ship

Due to some timing issue I did not receive any dividend this month. With most of divideng paying counter timing their payout dates in May, I can look forward to a"big bonus" next month. On the other hand, someone reminded me again of the saying: "sell in May and go away."  Let's see.....

STI touches 3000

Took a look at the market at lunch break today. STI stands at 3002. Coincidentally, my share portfolio total return (excludes dividend) turns from red to black!

while celebrating the turnaround, I must remind myself not to let greed overcome the rationale. As STI approaching the pre-crisis level, caution, caution, caution! should be the theme. Value, dividend should be the focus, not market darlings.

31 March 2010

The global economy seems to be on route to recovery. Corporates reported good earning in the past quarter. The US stock market rose steadily, depite the crisis reported from the Euro zone. STI rose 136.6 points (or 4.9%) in the whole month. If not for today's correction (yet to find out why the market corrected so much today) it would have ended above 2900.

As the index got higher, I became more cautious in buying stocks. This month, I only injected S$7,400 into the portfolio. I subscribe to FCOT CPPU and script dividend from Cambridge Industrial Trust and Pac Andes. Net of the fund injetted, portfolio rose by 5.14%. I received S$1,368 cash dividend also. Below are the top 30 holdings.

1.   SPH

2.   ComfortDelGro
3.   OCBC Bk
4.   DBS
5.   Semb Corp
6.   ST Engineering
7.   SP AusNet
8.   F & N
9.   CapitaLand
10.  CitySpring
11.  SGX
12.  Starhub
13.  SembMar
14.  FraserComm
15.  SAT Svcs
16.  Kep Corp
17.  SIA
18.  CoscoCorp
19.  SSH Corp
20.  FrasersCT
21.  CapitaComm
22.  MapletreeLog
23.  Aztech
24.  AscottReit
25.  MetroHldg
26.  SingTel
27.  Yangzijiang
28.  Pac Andes
29.  UE
30.  Sp Ship

As compared with last month, the top 30 holdings are little changed. Pac Andes re-enter due to price increase and the new units bought through dividend. SuntecReit was squeezed to 31st position. In the near future SSH will disappear due to KS Energy's business consolidation plan (approved during AGM).
 
In the coming month, I will continue to look up for value stock to build up the portfolio, but will be cautious because STI has run up quite a lot.

26 February 2010

For the whole month of February, stock market was boosted by good corporate results on one hand, but hit by the Greek financial crisis on the other. At the end of the month, STI only moved 5.5 points compared to end January. At least it moved up!.

Net of the new fund injetted, portfolio value moved up S$6,000 in the month of February. I bought bought SGX, SuntecReit, kepCorp and CapitaLand in this month. Suntec is new member of the portfolio, the rest are top-up.

Received cash dividend of S$1649. A dividend of S$446 went to CPF account. Below are the top 30 holdings:

1. SPH
2. ComfortDelGro
3. OCBC Bk
4. DBS
5. Semb Corp
6. ST Engineering
7. SP Ausnet
8. F & N
9. Cityspring
10. SGX
11. CapitaLand
12. Starhub
13. FraserComm
14. SembMar
15. SAT svcs
16. Kep Corp
17. SIA
18. CoscoCorp
19. frasers CT
20. CapitaComm
21. SSH Corp
22. SingTel
23. mapletreeLog
24. AscottReit
25. Yangzijing
26. MetroHldg
27. Aztech
28. sp Ship
29. SuntecReit
30 UE

31 January 2010

US president Obama's announcement to curb bank size and activities, together with China's new policy to curb bank loan dealt double blow to the stock market and initiated the awaited correction. Global stock price tumble in January. Likewise my portfolio.

I pumped inS$35,580 fresh fund into the portfolio buying new counters. Timing was bad as the first batch went in before the correction. Despite the new add-on, portfolio value didnot increase compared to December. I received S$240 of dividend in January.

Below are the top holding in January:


1. SPH
2. ComfortDelGro
3. OCBC Bk
4. DBS
5. ST Engineering
6. Semb Corp
7. SP AusNet
8. F & N
9. CitySpring
10. Starhub
11. FraserComm
12. SAT Svcs
13. SembMar
14. SGX
15. CoscoCorp
16. SIA
17. FrasersCT
18. SSH Corp
19. CapitaComm
20. SingTel
21. MapletreeLog
22. MetroHldg
23. AscottReit
24. CapittaLand
25. Aztech
26. Sp Ship
27. Yangzijiang
28. Pac Andes
29. KS Energy
30. MIDAS

SGX is a new member in my portfolio. Together with Pac Andes and MIDAS, they squeeze SMRT, Tat Hong and ASL Marine below the top 30 positions.

Thumb Drive Crash

This morning I discovered that the thumb drive which I use to store all investment data has crashed! All my data, portfolio monitoring for the last 1 1/2 month has lost!

Arh...........................................................

Lessons learned from the the big correction in 2007/08/09

When market crashed in October 2007, my share portfolio took a very hard hit and when from profit to lost. From a +25% profit, it went all the way down to -60% lost in February 2009. In fact, if I had not continued to buy shares in that period, the lost (from the original portfolio in 2007) would have been even more.

Thank God, as dramatic the fall was, so was the recovery since March 2009. As at 31 December, the portfolio recouped much of the losses and is currently at -6%. If I take into consideration of the dividends collected and others, it would be a +3~5%.

Its bout time to take stock and pen down lessons learned:

1. Cosco. It was my star performer before crisis. I bought the shares at 1.16 and it went all the way up to 8. Believe it or not, I did not take any profit. ON the hindsight, I should have taken some profit at it clearly exceeded 7% of my portfolio. (7% was my set max. of a single stock in my portfolio).

2. Chasing stocks on high price before the crash. That was my mistake. when STI was above 3,500, and warnings have been sounded for a correction, I ignored them and continue to chase stocks which have run up a lot.

3. Looking at my portfolio now, I can see that blue chips recovered very well from the correction. Whereas small and mid cap don't. This shows that small and mid cap are too over-value in the bull market prior to 2007. I have bought them without considering the intrinsic value, and therefore suffer big lost. This is an important lesson. Chasing "market darlings" that has run up substantially is definitely out for me in the future.

4. Importance of dividend payout. The cash dividend I received in the last two year did not reduce very much. It helped me to re-invest and boost the portfolio dring recovery.

5. Continue to stay invested. This is the reason for my portfolio to recover. As market crashed, I had a chance to buy into stocks that were expensive before. And when market recovered, this help to boost my portfolio value.


Going forwards, I shall:

1. Continue to be invested in the market.

2. Go for more defensive counters, since I have passed 50 mark. Go for dividend play to build up my alternative source of income.

3. Continue to diversify the portfolio.

4. Strictly limit the percentage of any single counter vs the total portfolio. No buying in of counter which exceed 7%. If any counter exceeds10%, bring it down to 7%.

5. Only add new counters with good intrinsic value.

** The above are reflection as at Today. They may change in time. Use them at your own risk.