Tea with AK71: The price of my car now.

The prices of cars in Singapore are still appreciating.

On 2 May, I mentioned that "in August last year, I convinced my mom to change her car" and "we decided on a Mitsubish Lancer Mivec 1.5 for $60k .....Guess what, it would cost her about $80k now to get the same Mitsubishi 9 months later!" Well, guess how much the same car would cost today? $87,988!

I blogged about buying a new car for myself on 1 August a few months ago. The "final price is $71k for a new Mazda 2 Sedan with leather seats and solar film." Guess how much it would cost today? Get ready for this really eye popping price tag: $96,988!

I am very happy to learn this but it is scary at the same time.  Talk about inflation!

Related posts:
Tea with AK71: Buying a car now?
Tea with AK71: Bought a new car!

Golden Agriculture: Levitation act.

Golden Agriculture's fortunes are tied to the performance of Crude Palm Oil (CPO).  With CPO forming new highs, Golden Agriculture is likely to do better in time.  However, I remain wary of adding to my position as the price does a levitation act.

The negative divergence with price moving higher and volume shrinking is all too obvious. Having said this, the MFI has formed higher lows which suggests that there is support and demand is strengthening.  The lower highs on the RSI suggest that the buying momentum has been weakening.  So? Price has been moving up due to the lack of sellers and not an abundance of buyers.

Immediate support is a recently many times tested 71.5c. Stronger support is at 67c, the low of 24 Nov and that is also where we find the rising 50dMA. The longer term resistance of 61c should be the longer term support now.

Raffles Education: A new low.

What started out as a promising up day for the STI was not to be as the index sank almost 1% at closing.

STI drops 0.8% to 3,172.44 at closing
Friday, 03 December 2010

© 2010 - The Edge Singapore

In Singapore, share prices lost early gains to end weaker on Friday following concerns over interest rates. Traders said the market firmed with early gains in regional exchanges as strong US economic data boosted sentiment. But prices pulled back later after China said it would tighten monetary policy next year, suggesting further interest rate hikes to cap inflation.

Read article here.

My portfolio is largely unaffected except for a small long position I have in Raffles Education. This was something I purchased a couple of months ago in early October as I identified a positive divergence between the rising MACD and the falling price on the daily chart. A reader at the time suggested that I could be a bit slow in identifying that divergence and it turned out that he was right.

26c looked promising as a possible double bottom with volume on 3 Sep, when 26c was first touched, very high but volume had been very low when 26c was retested recently. A picture of low volume pull back was also rather clear. Well, today's expansion in volume took out 26c and threw a spanner in the works. 26c was just a floor.

Do I see price falling further? Price touched a low of 25c and this is where we find the 138.2% Fibo line before closing at 25.5c. This could be another floor and should provide interim support. The MFI and RSI have been forming lower highs, suggesting a reduction in demand and buying momentum. However, they are both in negative territory now which could give pause to the selling momentum.

Would I sell now and take a 10% loss? Let us look at the weekly chart.

Since early June 2009 when the counter hit a high of 70c, trading volume has been declining as price retreated. As each floor (support) was broken, the trading volume became lower. The MACD has also been gently rising since mid December 2009 as price continued in its downtrend.

To talk about a reversal is surely early days yet but the signs are that further downside could well be limited. When all the would be sellers have sold, we could see a reversal of fortunes. In the meantime, a long term downtrend is still in force and this is not for the faint hearted.

So, I would not sell my small (money losing) stake in the company. Also, I tend to overlook counters which I am not vested in. Stay invested and I would continue to monitor the company.

Related post:
Raffles Education: A trading opportunity.

USA is back on a growth path.

Warren Buffett sent an open letter to the U.S. government recently thanking it for a job well done:

"Uncle Sam, you delivered... overall your actions were remarkably effective."

Warren Buffett thinks that the stimulus money and bailouts worked. Well, there is finally hard evidence that the U.S.A. is back on a growth path. This is taken from Yahoo!Finance:

“In October we were able to rule out this double-dip nightmare scenario,” he says. “We are able to see very clearly, with a good deal of conviction, a revival in growth,” Achuthan tells Aaron and Dan in this clip. The improvements are widespread, Achuthan says.

-- Profit growth and productivity are on the rise. Achuthan says that leads to more hiring and capital investment in equipment.

-- Housing has stabilized. The outlook may not be rosy, but “it’s not falling off a new cliff,” which means it’s not a drag.

-- Cheap capital as a result of low interest rates. The private sector continues to create jobs.

-- Pent-up demand. Thanks to the jump in jobs, people are less afraid of losing their positions, Achuthan suggests. And after two years of saving and worrying, consumers have “frugality fatigue” which is beginning to show in the improvements in holiday shopping data.

Posted Dec 01, 2010 03:50pm EST by Peter Gorenstein

This bodes well for U.S.A.'s trading partners like Singapore.

Related posts:
Comments on the US economy.
The US consumers are back!

First REIT: XR and fair value.

A friend called me yesterday and said he might buy into First REIT with a view of getting more excess rights. I gave him my full support and told him he is likely to make money in this exercise. It turned out that he didn't get any yesterday.

Assuming that he had bought 4 lots at 98.5c /unit, his average price including rights units would be:

98.5 x 4 + 50c x 5  /9 = 71.55c /unit

At the estimated annualised DPU of 6.4c for 2011, it would mean a yield of 8.94%.  Not bad.  If he managed to get 1 lot of excess rights later on, the average price would be 69.4c which means a yield of 9.22%! I like this.

My expectation is for the REIT to trade closer to an 8% yield.  That means I expect the REIT to trade closer to 80c per unit with the estimated annualised DPU revised upwards to 6.4c for 2011.

I had people asking me if they should sell their First REIT units when it went CR. My advice to them was to keep the units and to accept and pay for their rights.  The proposed acquisitions and rights issue is a good thing for existing unit holders: a strong yield on investment with a good chance of capital gains.  Of course, there were still some who sold which allowed me to buy more at 95c /unit.

In an earlier blog post, I mentioned that I did not see any reason why the REIT should trade below the TERP of 70c, XR, and if it did, I would buy more. Today, it touched 70c only to bounce higher. It closed at 73.5c after touching a high of 74c. Congratulations to fellow unit holders!

Allow me a little indulgence as this is something I have always wanted to do:

Rating: BUY.
Fair value: 80c/unit.

Related posts:
First REIT: Rights issue.
First REIT: Bought more at 95c.

Starhub, CapitaMalls Asia and CitySpring.

A reader asked me what's happening to Starhub and another one asked me what's happening to CapitaMalls Asia. The recent price weakness must be spooky for quite a few investors.

Starhub's uptrend is clearly broken. The support at 20dMA broke five sessions ago and closing at $2.63 today on high volume looks ominous as a long black candle was formed. $2.63 is where we find the rising 50dMA. Could we see price bouncing off the 50dMA? We could but there is no clear sign of a reversal. So, if price bounces off the 50dMA, it could be just that: a bounce.

The MFI has been forming lower highs and in a rebound, we could see it testing its downtrend resistance which approximates 50% which itself is a natural resistance.  If the MACD continues to descend towards zero, we could see it crossing into negative territory. We could see price testing the 100dMA as support then. Using Fibo lines as a guage, $2.51 is also where we find the 161.8% Fibo line. It would take a brave person to go long at this point in time. Immediate resistance at $2.72.

CapitaMalls Asia's share price closed below $2.00 once more. A long black candle was formed on high volume as price closed at $1.97. Will this counter test its low of $1.91 touched on 7 May 10? With all the momentum oscillators trending down, it could.

Time to go long? I don't think so. I would let the downtrend run its course and wait for clearer signs of a reversal. Watch out, in the meantime, for signs of stabilisation. See if the candlesticks start moving inwards away from the lower Bollinger.

I fully divested my investment in CitySpring, an investment which I have long regarded as a mistake, in early October. Kim Eng has downgraded the trust to a SELL now: Kim Eng Securities downgrades Cityspring Infrastructure Trust to Sell from Hold, cuts target price to $0.52 from $0.62 on prospect of lower distribution payouts, dilution risks.

Cityspring Infrastructure cut to Sell by Kim Eng
Tuesday, 30 November 2010

© 2010 - The Edge Singapore

Related post:
CapitaMalls Asia: Uptrend broken.
CitySpring Infrastructure Trust: Thoughts on divestment.

An award for ASSI.

I have abstracted the following from an email received today:

Dear AK71,

 Congratulations! Angela here, and your blog, A Singaporean Stockmarket Investor, is an essential part of our resources!

 As a website dedicated to help those consider a career in accounting, we only provide the best information available. Whether it's a resource that helps you understand finance, or provides insight on what to invest in, we provide them for those seeking to obtain this information. This is why we've featured your blog, as it is one of the best to teach our readers.


Please do not hesitate to call or email if you have any questions. Again, congratulations, and keep up the awesome work!

Cheers,
Angela Turner
(530)324-1593

This is a happy development and I would like to thank all readers for the spreading the word.

Healthway Medical: Support at 15c broke.

The counter closed at 14.5c today. Remember I mentioned that support is at 15c. Well, that broke today but it did not look to me like a convincing flush downwards as the volume sold down at 14.5c was very light and in fact, it was a one lot sell down at closing which caused the counter to close at 14.5c today.

I am wary of being whipsawed out. With the MACD hugging the signal line, this counter could go either way. However, with a picture of low volume pull back intact, comparing the high volume sell downs in mid October, when support at 16c was broken, to the current thin trading volume, the suggestion is that most of the weaker holders have been shaken out.  This does not mean that the price could not go lower.

I like to look at the weekly chart for more clues when the near term charts get a bit hazy. The picture of low volume pull back is reinforced in the weekly chart. Believe it or not, the counter's longer term uptrend is still intact. The MFI and RSI have both formed higher lows recently. These form positive divergences with the decline in the counter's share price. The MACD is still plunging into negative territory, however, and we could see price weakening further.

13.5c is a strong support, tested first in February, being underpinned by a rising 20wMA then. It was tested again in May, being underpinned by a rising 50wMA then. This time round, 13.5c could be tested once more as support and it would be underpinned by a rising 100wMA. So, we could see 14c tested soon if this pattern plays out.

China Hongxing: Rebounding.

China Hongxing's downtrend is still intact and there is no sign of any positive divergence to suggest that a reversal is at hand. However, price goes down a river of hope and we are seeing a rebound.

Although a white candle was formed today, it was on the back of relatively low volume. The lower highs on the MFI shows declining demand. However, with it and the RSI in negative territories, we could have a respite. I see resistance at 16c in case the rebound continues as that was a support which broke on 22 Nov and could be the near term resistance now.

It pays to remember that 15.5c was itself a strong support which broke and it is where we find the gently declining 200dMA. It could prove a challenge to overcome this resistance level unless volume expands meaningfully on buy ups.

Related post:
China Hongxing: Testing support.

$50k in annual passive income: Year end status.

The last time I wrote about my attempt to achieve an annual passive income of at least $50k was on 5 Sep when I concluded that "With Saizen REIT's contribution, I would probably exceed the target I have set for myself which is "to create a minimum of $50k in annual passive income from investments in the stock market alone."  I shared this aim here in my blog on 27 Feb 2010, more than half a year ago. Like with everything, however, this needs confirmation. Let us see what happens in December 2010." Read blog post here.

For quite some time now, my focus has been on my top three investments when I talk about building a reliable stream of passive income from the stock market.  They are Saizen REIT, AIMS AMP Capital Industrial REIT and LMIR.

One of my friends told me that this is inaccurate since I do not include dividends received from my other investments in the stock market such as First REIT, Suntec REIT and SPH. I must admit that I have not been fastidious that way. However, my investments in other counters are so dwarfed by my top three investments that, for the sake of simplicity, I have excluded them. Also, funds from the complete divestment of CitySpring Infrastructure Trust and Cambridge Industrial Trust as well as the privatisation of Hyflux Water Trust have largely been redeployed to AIMS AMP Capital Industrial REIT and Saizen REIT.

So, for this blog post, again, I will just focus on my top three investments to see if I have managed to hit the said target. I don't think we need to wait till December to see how things will turn out since both LMIR and AIMS AMP Capital Industrial REIT have declared their final distributions for the year.

Saizen REIT

Saizen REIT's next income distribution is in March 2011. I overlooked the fact that this REIT pays half-yearly. So, without any contribution from Saizen REIT in December, I would probably not be able to hit the $50k target this year.

Also, my estimate of an annualised 1.6c DPU for Saizen REIT was somewhat optimistic earlier in Sep and it was partly premised on the successful re-financing of YK Shintoku. A more realistic annualised DPU is probably about 1.2c if YK Shintoku's loan was refinanced successfully sooner than later. This is after learning at the AGM that continual divestment of properties in YK Shintoku is necessary in order for refinancing to be viewed more favourably by potential lenders. For me, this means a reduction of 25% in estimated passive income from this investment.

Needless to say, such a reduction is not helpful towards achieving the annual passive income target I have set but in absolute dollar terms, I still expect this REIT to contribute a lion's share of my passive income for 2011.

Read my comments here.

AIMS AMP Capital Industrial REIT

This REIT had a successful rights issue recently which made its existing unitholders somewhat richer. I was very pleased with the rights issue and I have not sold any of my rights units exercised at 15.5c as they will enjoy a yield of 13.4% in 2011 when the annualised DPU of 2.08c kicks in. Of course, trading at 22.5c a unit now, I have a handsome 45% capital gain (on paper) for these rights units as well.

However, the last income distribution came in weaker at DPU of 0.3968c. In my blog post of 29 Oct, I said, "This is because of the issue of 513.3 million rights units on 14 October 2010 and 7.2 million units to the Manager on 19 October 2010 for payment of the acquisition fee in relation to the acquisition of 27 Penjuru Lane. Distributable income from 27 Penjuru Lane would be included in the next distribution, not this one, since the acquisition was done in 3Q FY2011 and not in 2Q FY2011."  Read blog post here.

Of course, this does not change the fact that the lower DPU this time round (payable in December) is not going to help me hit my passive income target this year.


LMIR

Although I am still somewhat disappointed with the management, this REIT is a stable passive income generator. Their latest DPU of 1.09c is marginally higher than the previous quarter's 1.04c.  This is largely in line with my expectations, that "I expect the S$ to appreciate more robustly in future and it is unlikely that the DPU would reduce much more.  Conservatively, I estimate the DPU to be 1c per quarter or 4c per year from December 2010." Read blog post here.

Obviously, at a more conservative estimate of 4c DPU per annum, this is 20% lesser than the 5c DPU I was expecting at the start of the year.

So, based purely on these three investments, I have come up short this year with regards to my annual passive income target in the stock market.

Important development:

Recently, I have been buying more units of First REIT with a view that their recently announced acquisitions and rights issue are attractive propositions which would provide a distribution yield of 9% in 2011. Including the rights which I am entitled to and which I fully intend to accept and pay for, First REIT would rival LMIR as my third largest investment in the stock market.

So, from 1 Jan 2011, I will include dividends collected from First REIT in my calculations towards the target of $50k in annual passive income. I will continue to share my results here in my blog. Wish me luck.

Related posts:
$50k in annual passive income.
First REIT: Rights issue.