SCB supporter here too
been using it for almost one year. platform is simple just not quite useful for stock analysis. most importantly no minimum charge! buy small buy big also can. the only other risk is if SCB collapse then your stocks will have problem..

i dun think so, coz if the shares u already bought.. should be in yr CDP not STAND CHART.
Its only yr Cash not utilize with Stand Chart will be affected.

from my understanding, Standard chartered shares are kept in a custodian account not in CDP, therefore if one day you decide to move the shares to CDP then need to apply with SCB and pay a certain charge... the other drawback is since the shares are in custodian account, you won't be entitled to go to AGM makan makan...

Hi everybody,..

For an Online Trading Accunt with Standard Chartered Sgp, following are some considerations that will help answer some doubts in our mind :-

1) From the FAQ : What would happen if the Bank decides to cease offering of the Online Equities Trading platform?

Should the Bank decide to cease the offering of the Online Equities Trading platform, the Bank will, at every client’s option, deliver the Documents of Title of the securities in its custody back to the client, or transfer them to a bank or agent of client’s choice.

The delivery or transfer will be done in an orderly manner and in accordance with the banking agreement (which includes the Investment Product Terms) entered with the clients. The Bank’s staff would also be available to assist in the process.

Nonetheless, the above is a very unlikely scenario as the Bank has no intention of ceasing the offering of the Online Equities Trading platform.

For more information, please refer to Part E of the Investment Product Terms, which outlines the process for the termination by either party of the safe custody service.

2) Further infos from the FAQ : https://www.sc.com/sg/help-centre/faqs-ways...#online-trading

3) Yes, it's a concern for me too that I am not able to attend AGMs, however, I will always request to attend !

On my part, I have earlier alerted MAS about the opportunities for shareholders who hold shares under nominee accounts to attend the AGMs and EGMs.

Some initiatives have already been put into place by ACRA on this starting from 2016. But the arrangement is still under very preliminary stage,... but I think we are moving forward in this. I will need to extract from some ann'ts somewhere if forummers are keen to know more about the progress we have done to ensure nominee-based shareholders can attend AGMs/EGMs. ACRA and MAS will help in good governance initiatives.

4) A personal experience - when I click on the stock name under 'Stock Watch' in Online Trading, the latest news that affected that stock will be shown at the bottom of the page. I just can't find that news anywhere in the net, but can be seen in this Online Trading page. I suspected the news is from Reuters, a paid service. So,... it's quite informative too.

Hoped the above is helpful,...

Hoping the above is helpful,....

all this point to a scary warning. lots of $ going from stocks to bonds.

feels very jittery to hold any stock!

Bro,... I also buy in small lots,.. just so that I can attend the AGM and to participate in their corporate actions. Try-out first, get a feel of the counter, then buy more if confident.



I must say the SCB has a very nice and polite team of customer service representatives.

Hi Elea,...I supposed you can discuss with your RM about how to do Estate Planning for your investments if you are their client. I'm sure they will have something for you.

I have not checked my portfolio this morning, but I'm sure the 'profit' will be lower than what I had yesterday. It's okay,.. let it fall,... just gather more SGD bullets first,...

Very careful person

If transaction cost is a concern, then malaysian who wish to buy stock in SGX should also take into account the exchange rate (besides brokerage etc)

Ie. we convert RM-->SGD and transfer to Singapore to buy SGX stock vs use local platform to buy SGX stock.

I think local platform is offering good forex rate. Just an example CIMB Itrade charges 2.9655 today. Compare to spot rate (asking) 2.9594. CIMB earns thin spread only

If we convert RM to SGD via bank, the rate may not be that good. Could easily surpass the benefit of 0.18% (Sg platform) vs 0.42% (My platform)

So, I was thinking we have to look at the total cost, both brokerage and forex when cost is the concern

Of course, there are reasons more than cost alone when we choose platforms.

If opening account with a Sgp broker, can go AGM, EGM, Singapore activities, and particiapte in the SGD appreciation,...

As big American hedge funds begin their speculative attack on China Yuan and the Hong Kong dollar, another group of short-sellers have slipped into Southeast Asia, targeting Singapore, the region's financial hub. These short-sellers have Singapore stocks in their sights as the market struggles to find its footing after being hit hard by the commodity rout. The SGX saw its total short selling surge from 3.2 billion Singapore dollars (US$2.24 billion) in December to 5.6 billion Singapore dollars in January, representing 25 percent of total volume, the highest since data became available, Credit Suisse said in a note Tuesday. Short-selling refers to borrowing shares to sell in hopes of buying them back at a lower price later.

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After Soros reveals he is shorting Asia, big American hedge funds descend upon the region

That comes as the exchange is also facing headwinds from a concentration of listings in hard-hit sectors, including commodities, oil services and shipping as well as a hit from China's economic slowdown. Out of a total 776 listings at the end of December, the SGX had 63 listings in the basic materials sector, 40 in oil and gas and 267 classified as industrials. That compares with 26 healthcare listings and 59 technology listings. After the rout since the start of the year, the Straits Times Index is down nearly 12 percent year-to-date.

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25% of Singapore's stock market volume is now shorting

Among the stocks with the highest percentage of volume related to short-selling were agri-businesses Wilmar and Golden-Agri Resources and oil-rig-builders SembCorp Industries and Keppel Corp., Credit Suisse said. It comes at the time Singapore's financial market is already facing difficulty competing, particularly due to its relatively small size. The Singapore exchange's market capitalization, Southeast Asia's biggest, was at 904.77 billion Singapore dollars (US$632.26 billion) at the end of December, compared with Hong Kong's HKEx at 24.425 trillion Hong Kong dollars (US$3.13 trillion) at the end of December.

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Singapore's stocks have fallen 12% last month, speculators seek to crash it further

At the same time, the daily average turnover has been shrinking, with December's 774 million Singapore dollars' worth of average daily volume down 22 percent from the year-earlier month. The small size makes it tough for Singapore to attract institutional investors to its market. "One of the challenges for the Singapore market is that sometimes the criticism there is that there are not (enough) companies to invest in," Daryl Liew, head of portfolio management at asset manager Reyl Singapore, said at an SGX-CNBC summit last week in Singapore.

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Weakness revealed as Singapore's exports went down 7.2% in December

"We tend to invest only in companies with a minimum $1 billion market cap. Obviously there are some that we can put in there, but there are certain limitations to what we can actually allocate money to," he said. Another criticism comes from a perceived focus on stodgier industries, such as commodities and shipbuilding. "Where the market is a little bit weak at the moment is in growth stories, credible structural growth stories that you can invest in over a three-to-five-year time frame," Conrad Werner, head of equity research for Singapore at Macquarie, said at the panel. "They are there, selectively, but as a block, for example, I would like to see the technology sector represented within the index, which we don't have."

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Hong Kong monetary chief: short-sellers will not win, we defeated them in 1997 and we will again

In Hong Kong, the territory's monetary chief warned that speculators are wasting their time trying to short the Hong Kong dollar. But now instead of the currency they are moving into one of Hong Kong's weak spots, the property market. Hong Kong's property slump has begin to worry investors. Home prices have slumped almost 10 percent since September and monthly sales in January fell to the lowest since at least 1991, according to Centaline Property Agency Ltd. "The danger is that when sentiment turns negative, it's very hard to turn things around," Michael Spencer, Deutsche Bank AG's Hong Kong-based Asian chief economist, said. Real estate developer made up a vital component in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

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Speculators diverted their attention, from currency to targeting Hong Kong's property stocks, who are now at their weakest since 1991

Norman Chan, the monetary chief, reminded speculators that Hong Kong government used its sizable foreign-exchange reserves to aggressively buy the stock market and ultimately defeated them back in 1997, saying Hong Kong is in a much stronger position to defend itself from a similar attack. He points to foreign reserves at HK$422 billion, 5.2 times higher than the HK$67.6 billion in 1997. This, he says, means the same strategies in 1997 to short sell the Hong Kong dollar to try to push the interest rate up and benefit from falling stock markets would be less effective and too expensive.

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China: We will use all means to defend the stability of our currency

In China, the People's Bank of China launched a two-pronged attack on short-sellers by mopping up the currency overseas and choking supply of yuan from the mainland. The assault pushed the offshore rate to a premium that week, before it swung the other way again. "Bears are not giving up on shorting the yuan simply because of the PBOC's attacks, and they are preparing to return to the game," said Kenix Lai, a foreign-exchange analyst at Bank of East Asia Ltd. in Hong Kong. "There will be a very intense confrontation between short-sellers and China in the near term. While the market strongly believes there's room for further declines, the central bank will try its best to keep the yuan stable."

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Japan moves towards negative interest rates, indirectly helping speculators in their battle against China

Speculators who short Asia were helped by Japan last week. Thanks to the Bank of Japan's surprise move to a negative interest rates on a portion of bank reserves, the Japanese yen has renewed its downward spiral. This move by the world's third largest economy effectively put Japan in a currency war with its Asian neighbors. With the market already view the yuan as overvalued as seen in accelerating foreign currency outflows, the move to weaken yen just adds to the yuan's perceived overvaluation.


http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/02/short-selle...ock-market.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/201...-to-25-year-low
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hong-kong...tate-2016-02-01

the links don't work

Good counter-opinions from prophet on Singapore. Not healthy to bet in totality on one single geography.

The first initiative for First REIT for 2016. And further initiatives for LMIR for this year. Is the Lippo Group still bent on delisting these two counters from the SGX ?

....

February 4, 2016:

Singapore’s LMIRT Management Ltd (LMIRT) and First Real Estate Investment Trust (First REIT) entered into a joint arrangement to acquire Siloam Hospitals Yogyakarta and a retail mall component, Lippo Plaza Jogja (LPJ) in Yogyakarta from their sponsor PT Lippo Karawaci Tbk (LPKR), said the company in press statement.

The purchase consideration of S$51.0 million ($36.2 million), to be borne by First REIT, represents a discount of 8.8 per cent to the higher of two independent valuations.

The joint acquisition is subject to the approval of unit-holders of both LMIR Trust and First REIT at their respective extraordinary general meetings.

Under the pact, LMIR Trust is entitled to the economic rights of the assets relating to LPJ as also the liabilities.

Similarly, First REIT will have the corresponding rights, undertakings, liabilities and responsibilities in respect of the hospital component.

Being in a strategically located catchment area and along with the surrounding areas in Central Java, Yogyakarta enjoys one of the highest population densities in Java. The property comprises a 10-storeyed building on a total land area of 13,715 square meters.

LMIRT’s Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Alvin Cheng commented, following the acquisitions of Lippo Plaza Batu and Palembang Icon in July last year, and the announcement of the proposed acquisition of Lippo Mall Kuta in Bali on 8 January 2016, the company is looking forward to strengthening their property portfolio with the proposed yield accretive acquisition.

“Whilst we added S$362 million of new assets at end of 2014, when we acquired Lippo Mall Kemang, we will have added a further SGD240 million of assets since July 2015 when we complete the latest transactions in Bali and Yogyakarta,” He said.

LMIR Trust will finance the retail mall acquisition through debt financing. The Manager of LMIR Trust is currently exploring the options of bank loan facilities and/or issuance of unsecured bonds under the EMTN programme which was established in September 2015.

Wishing all here who celebrate : A Happy and Prosperous Lunar New Year 2016. See you again in The Year of The Fiery Monkey.

hope it will not be a year of fried monkeys.

good rally for telco counter today!

http://www.propertyguru.com.sg/property-ma...crash-shanmugam

Govt won’t let property market crash: Shanmugam
this news causing rally or regular Friday rally?

sgx +2.5% today.

some counters up 5-6%.

gong xi fa cai!