Global Companies’ Earnings Results

If you invest globally, check out the Financial Times’ dedicated web page with a collection of the latest company earnings results around the world, including  those from the United States, Japan and Europe. This page can be found at http://www.ft.com/earnings. For Singapore-listed company results, the best source is the Business Times, where a tally of earnings will be usually published during earnings season. You can also refer to the detailed announcements published on the Singapore Exchange here. As usual, the headlines from both Financial Times and Business Times can also be found on CashBench at all times for your reference. Enjoy!

Jim Rogers: Chinese markets may collapse

Translated from Lianhe Zaobao (Chinese), 29 Jul 2009

Investor Jim Rogers told Bloomberg in an interview that the Chinese stock market has risen too quickly since November last year. The Shanghai Composite has already doubled and reached a peak since June 2008. This is not a good sign and the Chinese stock markets may collapse.

Mr. Rogers who is currently the chairman of Rogers Holdings opined that when stock prices rise too quickly, a collapse may be inevitable. Since November, he has not made any new investments in Chinese stocks. However, he has also not sold any shares that he bought through progressive investments since 1988. Mr. Rogers currently resides in Singapore and told Bloomberg “I much prefer to buy when things collapse”. In addition, Mr. Rogers disclosed that he currently prefers investing in commodities rather than shares, as China will require commodities to maintain a sustained economic growth.

He also disagreed with US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner that Chinese consumers need to increase consumption to boost economic growth. Instead, he said, “the Chinese consumers are already consuming more. The Chinese economy has such a remarkable performance because they have massive savings and investments. There is no need to tell them to increase consumption and not save”.

Asia Pacific markets continued to climb

Translated from Lianhe Zaobao (Chinese), published 28 Jul 2009

Market Performance
Stock Index	Closing Level	% Change
Manila	2732.62	2.1
Shanghai	3435.212	1.9
Shenzhen	1126.009	1.9
Singapore	2576.66	1.7
Tokyo	10088.66	1.5
Hong Kong	20251.62	1.4
Seoul	1524.05	1.4
Jakarta	2209.101	1.1
Bangkok	617.83	0.6
Kuala Lumpur	1156.43	0.1
Taipei	7028.43	0.1

As investors expect economic recovery to lead to positive knock-on effects on company earnings, Asia Pacific markets yesterday continued to rise. A fund manager from Credit Suisse Asset Management said an influx of hot money is driving up popular stocks, but there is a growing risk of capital being re-directed to selected markets where more IPOs are carried out.

Among Asia Pacific markets, Manila performed the best with a rise of 2.1% to 2732.62. This is despite a bomb threat at the Manila Stock Exchange. Popular stocks included blue chips such as Manila Electric and Ayala. After trading for the day ended, the Manila Stock Exchange clarified that the bomb threat was a hoax and trading will continue today.

Singapore’s market also rose 1.7% to 2576.66 and has risen 46.3% thus far this year. Among the top gainers are SingTel, UOB and DBS Holdings. These 3 stocks are responsible for a gain of 31 points in the STI index.

A trader said that as economic data is generally positive and earnings results announced to date are better than forecasted, investors are led to believe that stock markets have entered a period of recovery.

In other markets, Hong Kong and Tokyo have each rose 1.4% and 1.5% to 20251.62 and 10088.66 respectively. Shanghai and Shenzhen both rose 1.9% to 3435.212 and 1126.009. As of 9pm yesterday, Europe’s markets are generally rising, of which the FTSE in London has risen 0.1% to 4580.

Citigroup Equity Research expects the second-half performance of markets to be weaker than the second quarter. This is largely due to the continued mixed performance of exports in June. In particular, China’s exports continued to fall without any signs of improvement.