Singapore Stock Market Updates On 23/06/10

Morning Highlights

Singapore stocks are weaker as weighed by losses on Wall Street overnight, with STI down 16.9 points to open at 2855.40.

• CDL Hospitality places new units at S$1.71

Lookout for Economic News Release For Today:

1. U.S. New Home Sales for May (Expected to decline slightly to 431,000 units from April’s 504,000 units)
2. Singapore CPI numbers for May (to measure inflationary situation)

News Updates:

1. US existing home sales fall unexpectedly in May by 2.2% mom to an annual rate of 5.66 million units from an upwardly revised 5.79 million-unit pace in April. Sales were up 19.2% compared to May last year.
2. Finance minister George Osborne said growth this year would be 1.2% – below the 1.3% forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility last week. Growth in 2011 is projected at 2.3%, below the OBR’s forecast of 2.6%, before picking up to 2.8% in 2012 and 2.9% in 2013.
3. Britain overhauled its taxation system on Tuesday, slapping banks with a new levy and ramping up taxes on goods, services and assets but also delivered cuts for the low-paid workers and businesses. From January, Britain will raise the VAT tax levied on goods and services to 20% from 17.5% in a bid to eventually raise more than 13 billion pounds a year. At the same time, Britain will cut the rate of tax levied on company profits to a record low level of 24% by 2014. It currently stands at 28%.
4. White House’s offshore-drilling moratorium blocked by judge: report‏
5. Dow falls 149 points as energy sector paces late-session tumble‏ after sentiment was hurt by an unexpected drop in U.S. existing home sales
6. Adobe sets $1.6 billion stock buyback as sales and profit rise; shares slip after hours
7. Japanese shares drop early, with tech stocks, auto makers weaker; Nikkei Average down 1.5%‏.
8. Taiwan and China will sign a landmark trade deal between June 28 and 30 in the Chinese city of Chongqinq, Taiwan newspapers reported on Wednesday, opening the way for a major boost to around US$100 billion in annual two-way trade.

Quick Picks: Here is a quick pick screen that we have designed to pick out potential stocks, both Bullish and Bearish. These are measured with emphasis on larger changes in price and volume.

Bullish Stocks (Singapore)

Stock Prices last updated at 9:05 (Singapore Time)