The following companies may have unusual price changes in Singapore trading tomorrow. Stock symbols are in parentheses, and share prices are from the previous close. Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 0.3% to 3,245.96.
CapitaLand (CAPL SP): Singapore’s biggest developer said the government’s measures to curb property speculation will hurt sentiment in the “near term,” and transactions and home prices may “moderate.” The stock fell 3.4% to $3.71.
Singapore’s retail sales excluding motor vehicles gained for a 13th straight month in November as rising wages and record tourist arrivals spurred spending.
The index measuring purchases excluding automobiles climbed 5.4% from a year earlier, after gaining a revised 5.6% in October, the Statistics Department said in a statement today. Including vehicles, which are sold subject to government caps, total retail sales fell 2.4%, matching the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of eight economists.
The following companies may have unusual price changes in Singapore trading today. Stock symbols are in parentheses, and share prices are from the previous close. Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 0.3% to 3,255.87.
Developers: Singapore will increase down payments for second mortgages and impose a stamp duty on property held for less than four years to cool property prices. The nation’s private home prices climbed to a record in the fourth quarter as the nation’s fastest economic growth since independence helped counter earlier measures.
Singapore will raise down payments for second mortgages and extend holding periods for properties starting tomorrow after home prices rose to a record last quarter, intensifying the nation’s efforts to curb speculation.
Individuals who hold more than one mortgage can only borrow up to 60% of a property’s value, versus 70% previously, the government said in a statement today, while loans to entities other individuals will be cut to 50% from 60%. A seller’s stamp duty will apply to all residential units and land sold within four years of purchase, from three years now.
Today’s trade has a slightly positive bias to it, as global equities breathe a sigh of relief over Portugal’s debt auction, but the STI’s earlier dip into the red reflects a lack of conviction over the local market’s near-term trend.
Singapore shares may rise on Thursday, tracking gains in U.S. markets overnight as a successful bond auction by Portugal eased investors’ fears about the euro zone debt crisis.
Singapore’s benchmark Straits Times Index <.FTSTI> gained 0.11% on Wednesday to 3,244.94 points.
Today’s rise continues the stellar 15.7% gain from December 20’s close of $2.04, just before Noble announced its US$950 million ($1.23 billion) acquisition of two sugar cane mills in Brazil.
The governments’ revenue from the two casinos will be placed in a consolidated fund, Second Finance Minister Lim Hwee Hua said in Parliament today.
The STI is down 0.6% at 3,241.92 at 3:17 p.m., pulling back sharply in the afternoon, tracking falls in Shanghai and Hong Kong bourses which extend losses after China’s weaker-than-expected December exports, sparking fears over a slowdown in Asia’s economic engine.
Wilmar International (F34.SG) is +1.2% at $5.77, outperforming the STI, which is flat-to-lower; the company’s analyst briefing Friday seems to have soothed some fears over a loss of business discipline after its foray into property development.
DMG says after the briefing, it is “comforted” that the property JV “will not be detrimental to the company’s business focus”; the property business “will essentially ride on China’s urbanisation and rising wealth, which are the very same factors driving its agribusiness in China.”
Weekend Comment Jan 14: Property market gets the chills
Singapore government’s measures to curb property speculation sent shares of city-state’s biggest developers down the most in 11 months today.
The Straits Times Real Estate Index fell 0.3% at the close, with three stocks falling for every two that gained. CapitaLand, Southeast Asia’s biggest developer, fell 3.4% to $3.71, while City Developments, the second largest, declined 4.6% to $12.16, both retreating by the most since Feb 22.
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