banking and investment

Electronic Payment Methods in Singapore

2011-02-06T20:25:00.000-08:00

In early days when a credit card was used to make a payment, the card was "swiped" so the embossed card numbers could be printed on the bill. The customer signed on the bill. Later the shop sent the bill to his bank to collect the money. This is a kind of manual work. Today almost all Point-Of-Sale counters have a machine to read the magnetic stripe of the card. The card numbers and sale amount are sent to the acquiring bank in real time, then an authorization code is returned (if the transaction is approved). The customer's signature is still required. Needless to say, this electronic method is much safer than old day's manual job.

There are two widely accepted credit card types: Visa and Mastercard. Nearly all POS that accept the one accommodate the other. Some shops also accept Amex, Jcb, Diner's Club cards. But I never had one. Besides Visa and Mastercard credit cards, banks also issue Visa and Master debit cards. These kinds of debit cards are used the same way as Visa/Mastercard credit cards, and at the same commission rate. The only difference lies in that by using credit card the customer is borrowing from a bank, but the debit card is deducting his own money. To issue a credit card, the bank should check if the customer is credit worthy. But to issue a debit card, it is of no risk. So Singapore banks are aggressively promoting debit cards. The traditional ATM debit cards are being replaced by "enhanced" Visa or Master debit cards.

There exists another debit card electronic payment system owned by three local banks. It is called NETS - Network for Electronic Transfer Singapore. NETS includes 3 local banks and only one foreign bank - Standard chartered bank. Its fee rate is much lower than Visa/Master. So small shops and the government prefer to NETS. At POS, the money is pulled out directly from a current/savings account. It involved no loan. But NETS does not include other foreign banks. In 2010, two big foreign banks, Maybank and Citibank, jointly launched a NETS-like debit payment system: EPINS. It's really a result of monopoly and waste of resources. In Australia, such system is call EFTPOS. In Canada, it is called Interac. Banks, no matter it is local or foreign, all join the system.

Credit card usage in four countries

2011-02-03T14:27:00.000-08:00

"Credit Card" is a kind of short term loans. Consumer pays for the good/service with a credit card. In effect, the bank loans the money to the consumer. Each month the bank presents a bill to the customer, and then the customer has a grace period of normally 3 weeks non-interest time to settle the bill. Usually the bank will also award the customer with "loyalty points", which can be used to redeem for gifts. The customer has the payment convenient, non-interest loan, and bonus points. The bank charges the shops a commission for providing this payment service. Shop owners can tap into mass credit card holders by accepting this mode of payment. It seems like a 3-way win-win-win situation. That's why VISA and Mastercard are so profitable today.

But if you look into more details of this credit card payment method, you will find something big. The commission rate is about 2 to 2.25% of the sales. For a $20 sale, the charge is 40 cents. If a shop passes this 40 cents surcharge to customers when they use credit cards, not cash, it would be an enough discouragement to use cards. Thus, credit card issuers do not allow it to happen. They demand the shops, who accept credit cards, can not charge differently whether the customers pay with cash or card. Shops have to increase the prices to mark up the card commissions. In this way, an article on a newspaper said, card holders are taking advantage of non-card holders.

Big department shops can absorb this 2% charge easily. However, most small shops, which are on low profit margins, think 2% is unbearable. So they do not accept credit card payment method at all. Fortunately, there is also a debit-card market, which is much cheaper comparing to credit card, provides cashless payment convenience. This is exactly the situation in Singapore.

In Australia, the central bank allows the shops to pass the extra cost to consumers. Not long ago, I read an article on the internet. The amount paid with credit cards was becoming lower and lower. The sales paid with debit card surpassed credit cards.

In Canada I am using credit card to build my credit history. If my credit report has a wonderful score, it will save me thousands of dollars when I take up a mortgage in the future. Back in China, I once did have a credit card. But in fact I never used it before I put money into the account. So it was more like a debt card.

To experience is to believe

2011-02-02T14:04:00.000-08:00

I'm lucky to be able to reside in four countries: China, Singapore, Australia, and Canada. China is my home country. I left it when I was in my late 20's. I only knew deposits at that time. And I did not have a sense to different interest rates. In 1996 one year bank deposit could bear a double-digit interest rate. That was a hype-inflation period. My savings was mostly in 1 year term deposit, and renewed year after year, since I did not know other options.

I am amazed to read my old blog posts of 2005 and 2006. I know that my financial knowledge was much expanded during that time. I was hunting for higher saving interest rate, I got used to online banking accounts (only operated via internet or telephone), I opened a foreign exchange broker account, and I did online stock trading as well. The most distinguished feature of Singapore financial market is that, the government controls inflation through currency exchange rate, not common "overnight interest rate".

Australia is a special market too. At present, all major developed countries have a super low interest rates environment. But the Aussie overnight interest rate is 4.75% (Japan 0.1%, US 0.25%, Canada 1%, Euro 1%). This is really a question to me. How does Aussie dollar to run under so high rate?

After coming to Canada, I'm surprised to find so many small "banks". Not only to mention "ING Direct" and many many credit unions, I find that there are a lot of corporations, whose core business is others, are offering banking deposits, i.e. Ally, Canadian Tire Bank, etc. The only common thing among them is that they participate in a deposit insurance. This situation will definitely not happen in China where creditibility is much hard to gain.

New post after almost five years

2011-02-02T10:43:00.000-08:00

It's been nearly 5 years since the last post. My life has had a lot of changes during this period. Yet the stocking market continues. In the last post UOB KeyHian was at $1.31. Today it is $1.81. Also count its dividends in these five years time.

The last five years are important to stock investors. We encountered "big bull" in 2007, "great financial crisis" in 2008, "massive quantitative easing" since 2009 till today and possible to 2012. Let me calculate the return rate of UOB KH:

Dividends: 2007: 0.195, 2008: 0.124, 2009: 0.075, 2010: 0.08.
Price gain: 0.50.
Return rate = (0.195 + 0.124 + 0.075 + 0.08 + 0.50) / 1.31 = 74%

I think an annual return rate of about 14.8% is satisfactory in this example.

A very bullish chart

2006-03-30T21:02:00.000-08:00

Agree? Hit $1.31 already!!!

UOB KAYHIAN

2006-03-20T23:15:00.000-08:00

Slowly but steady. Its price is reaching 52-week high. I like its pattern.

CPH 4th review

2006-03-14T22:09:00.000-08:00

Despite good results and dividends, its price is dropping...

China Paper third visit

2006-03-05T17:26:00.000-08:00

Its price has recovered since it announced revenue and net profit jump, and a dividend of RMB 0.111. Better than I anticipated.

China Paper Holdings Revisit

2006-02-26T21:05:00.000-08:00

With recent relatively high trading volume, many investors are still interested in this counter. The price has bounced back from as low as 30 cents. The most anticipated result is due by 1st Mar. Will it announce a dividend of 0.1 RMB?

pay-per-click ads revisit

2006-02-22T00:37:00.000-08:00

After my previous post The Advertisements That I have tried, I tried some more ads companies. Here is the update:

(1) BidVertiser has closed my account. Reason: invalid clicks. Frankly speaking, if it feels clicks/impressions rate is too high, or constantly clicks each day, it will think you are fraud.

(2) CrispAds only counts the clicks from several countries, excluding Singapore. So does BannerBoxes / RevenuePILOT.

(3) AdBrite has a setting which allows you to display general advertisements, even gambling and adult contents.

(4) After trying so many companies, I feel it is not a good channel to earn money online. With so few viewers and traffic of your blog, how could you think your blog worth a lot? Each valid click worths 3 to 7 cents only. I think UOB online rewards is even better than this "online making money". If you did an online transaction using UOB internet banking, you get points worth 25 singapore cents.

China Paper Holdings

2006-02-20T21:31:00.000-08:00

In favour factors:
(1) Steady growth: FY05 Q1 gross margin: 25.09%, EPS 6.86 fen RMB. Q2: 25.66% and 8.66 fen. Q3: 29.97% and 11 fen. Q4 will be reported by 1st Mar. 06.
(2) Increased capacity: announcement on 3rd Jan. 06. Output increased by 12.5% or 20,000 tonnes.

Uncertain factors:
(1) Major shareholder Rise Business Inc. was exiting.
(2) Changed auditors during FY05.

An email from BidVertiser

2006-02-19T17:10:00.000-08:00

We are sorry to inform you that due to a violation of our Terms of Service, we have terminated your account. Reason for termination: Invalid clicks generated by any of the following actions:

1. Clicks generated by the website owner. Clicking on the BidVertiser ads on your own site, for any reason, is strictly prohibited.

2. Asking or encouraging others to click on the BidVertiser ads. Asking or encouraging others to click on the ads for any reason, either directly or indirectly, is strictly prohibited. Using sentences such as "click the ads to support us", "visit our sponsors" or "please click the ads" will lead to account termination.

3. Displaying the BidVertiser ads in an unrequested pop-up, pop-under
or third-party's frame. Pages showing the BidVertiser ads may never be loaded in an unrequested pop-up, pop-under, floating HTML item or as an inner frame of a third party. Promoting your website or purchasing traffic from clicks-exchange networks is strictly prohibited.

4. Displaying the BidVertiser ads on sites that contain prohibited content. The BidVertiser ads may not be displayed alongside any type of content prohibited by our program policies, such as adult or mature content, or illegal drugs content.

5. Generating automated scripts or any other method solely meant to generate clicks on the BidVertiser ads.

We would kindly ask you to remove any BidVertiser HTML code from your website ASAP.

Adsense Exchange?

2006-02-16T17:24:00.000-08:00

All pay per click agents can disconnect a publisher’s account if it feels frauds. This includes not only self-clicking. Now all over the world there is a certain "Adsense Exchange" where you essentially pay and exchange members rotate clicking each others ads. Many people are induced and actually go and join. While you may see some immediate increases in your AdSense dollars, Google will ban your account sooner or later. This is very important, you will get banned. It may take a day, a few weeks, a few months but you'll get banned. No problem.

If you are truly looking to earn an income with Google Adsense, there is no quick route. You must have quality developed sites with fresh content being added. You must tweak your sites and make them somewhat unique! You must NOT click your own ads! You simply do these things and you will make money from Google AdSense.

The Advertisements That I have tried

2006-02-14T16:54:00.000-08:00

As in the previous blog, I listed so many companies which provide pay-per-click advertisement. So far I have tested five of them. Here is the result:

Tested but removed: (1) Google adsense. It is very fast and convenient. However, due to its popularity, you see same advertisements everywhere. I removed it. (2) AdBrite. It doesn't provide general advertisements on your site. Only interested advertisers indicate to place ads on your site, and then you can make money. So my account was zero for more than two weeks. (3) AllFeeds. This one is a surprise. All the ads don't work. Clicking on them will transfer to allfeeds homepage.

Currently running: (1) BidVertiser. (2) Clicksor. I will elaborate them later.

P.S. Amended at 11 AM. Clicksor often times out to fetch data. I decide to remove it too. But I applied for RevenuePILOT. They will reply me in 1 or 2 business days. :)

P.S. Added at 2PM 16 Feb 06. RevenuePILOT only accepts clicks from UK/ US/ Canada/ Australia. I have to remove it as well.

P.S. Added at 9AM 17 Feb 06. Contextweb.com rejected my application to open an account, citing that they don't provide ads situated for my category. They will notify me when they start the category in the future.

Pay-Per-Click Advertisement

2006-02-09T22:06:00.000-08:00

In current tide of second generation of internet, many of us create our own blog sites. After you have created your website, and you are getting some visitors. So next step you want to earn some revenue. Currently there are many companies out there that will provide you advertisements to display on your site.

You receive money (pay) per click (PPC) or a percentage of any sales that your lead makes. Google AdSense is currently the main player in the Pay-Per-Click advertising field. Nowadays you often see "Ads by gooooogle" when you are surfing. Google's high quality network infrastructure enables it able to accept big number of websites. But it has a drawback. Just imagining many sites are displaying same advertisements, who will click the ones on your site?

Some companies provide advertisements based on the content of your site, or contextual. While some claim to display the one who bids at highest price.

For your reference, here is a list famous companies who offer Pay-Per-Click:
7Search / Adhearus / Adsense / AdSonar / AffiliateSensor / AllFeeds / AzoogleAds / BidClix / Bidvertiser / BrightAds / Chitika /Clicksor / Context Web / FastClick / Revenue Pilot / TargetPoint / Yahoo.

Publishers and Advertisers

2006-02-06T20:41:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the booming blogs, which some people call the second generation of internet, many of us become bloggers, or publishers. Where publishers exist is where advertisers do. Although a blog provides little chance of boosting sales, people won't waste it. Thus many advertisement agents are born. They are bridges to advertisers and publishers. They collect money from advertisers and share it with publishers. The money is based on eyeballs, i.e. impressions or clicks.

Due to the nature of personal blogs, the audience of personal blogs, normal newspaper advertisements could not find it is worth advertising on them. But many online book-selling stores are different. They sell books about how to make money online. For example, the book title could be I make online weekly money of $3,000 without doing anything. Or Secrets of Google Adsense. I believe many blogger wish to earn this free money too.

It is not surprised that many authors live upon these kinds of books. And even an author claims that 20% of online clicks are fraudulent. He can tell them from legislated clicks. Advertisers can refer to him to find out truth. Of course advertisers must pay for it. Blogs created a lot of business in deed.

Making money is not easy

2006-02-05T20:45:00.000-08:00

Although your account balance may accrue by some clicks, Google people are very intelligent to detect invalid ones. They don't disclose how they found that. They have therefore disabled your Google AdSense account. Please understand that this step was taken in an effort to protect the interest of the AdWords advertisers.

A publisher's site may not have invalid clicks on any ad(s), including but not limited to clicks generated by:

(1) a publisher on his own web pages; (2) a publisher encouraging others to click on his ads (3) automated clicking programs or any other deceptive software (4) a publisher altering any portion of the ad code or changing the layout, behavior, targeting, or delivery of ads for any reason.

In conclusion, your web pages must have the ability to promote advertisers' interest. Only in this way can you get paid. NOT EASY.

Where are you going, Straits Times Index?

2006-01-31T20:36:00.000-08:00

I want to ask this question too, because I am not sure about it too. Some favorable factors are:
(1) Singapore will hold its general election soon. The government will paint a rosy picture as usual. (2) Local economy speeds up since 4Q last year. Government has lifted the GDP growth prediction. (3) Regional economy entities are doing well. Japan finished decade-long recession. China won't see retreat until Olympic year 2008.

But we must keep in mind that negative factors are not faded. These are: (1) High record crude oil price, which may reach us$100 per barrel. (2) US economy halts because of high interest rate. (3) Potential pandemic of bird flu.

What can you draw from above? I only know that in the next three month, the market mood is positive.
Disclaimer: This website doesn't recommend you buy anything.

Year of the Dog

2006-01-28T00:12:00.000-08:00

The coming year is the DOG in Chinese zodiac. Dog has the long history of being with human. Its most admirable character is loyalty. Its bark sounds like "wang...wang...", which means flourishing in Mandarin. I hope the stock market will also thrive and we all have a good year ahead.

A year has passed. At the very beginning of brand new year, I wish I could overcome some problems in investing. One typical problem is that I could not hold the good stock for enough long time to enjoy the big price jump. I often feel hands itchy when it shows some paper profit and have the impulse to sell it.

Here I have some prescription to share with you.
(1) Leave the market for some period. Don't be so over-analyzed. (2) Do you find another more promising share? If not, better not sell current holdings. (3) Join some online forums to discuss with fellows.

Remember: Big profit comes from holding, not trading.
Disclaimer:This site is not an inducement of investment.

Share Buyback exercise

2006-01-26T19:06:00.000-08:00

Sometimes a company or a director of that company buys into shares of itself. What does this mean?

If the company has a lot of cash reserve yet not find an investment opportunity, it may declare a special dividend. Or indirectly, it buys its share from open market. It means its shares are the best investment at that time. Through buyback, the floating number of shares decreases. So the earning per share would go up, making its share more attractive. For example, local banks such as OCBC and UOB are both in such share buyback exercise.

Sometimes a director might buy his company's share in open market. I.e. a director of Lasseters kept buying its shares during last several months. In this case, he signals to public that he is confident about the future of the company.

Last situation is actually not buy back. However, I like it most. It is an investment fund that keeps buying a company. If you check last year announcements about Eu Yan Sang, you would find that before its share price jumped, Aberdeen Asset Management Asia Ltd made lots of purchases. If someone notices such situation, do drop me an email.

Disclaim: This website is not an inducement of investment.

Brokers in SGX market

2006-01-23T18:21:00.000-08:00

From SARS year 2003 to end of 2005, the share price of Singapore Exchange Ltd almost tripled to $3.10. But for the two main broker firms in SGX, Kim Eng and UOB-Kay Hian, their prices hover only a little bit above history. See the left picture. It is from SGX website.

With SGX posted a historical 2Q result (quarter ending 31/12/05), I guess stockbrokers should follow its steps. UOB-KH will post its financial year report soon. We can expect it will announce at least a final 7 cents dividend. So its price target of $1.25 is almost guaranteed.

Kim Eng has announced a "dividend policy" last Nov. when it issued 3Q result. It wrote: The Directors believe that through several years of solid earnings and prudent strategic management of its assets, the Company has been able to fortify its balance sheet so that it can sustain all current business activities, comfortably manage a significant upturn in such business activities while having the flexibility to pursue expansion should the right strategic opportunities arise.

It is so optimistic. A generous dividend is almost seen.

More Facts about Adsense

2006-01-22T20:41:00.000-08:00

After you set up a blog, and signed in Google Adsense, your journey to making money started. You keep on blogging and blogging, hoping more people will visit your site and at the same time, Google will pay you more. However, do you know where your income comes from? If you understand more about Adsense, you may generate your revenue more quickly.

Google puts ads on your site, and share the ad income with you. That is where your money comes from. So Google must display the ads which are relevant to your site content. By this way, people who view your blog are also likely to click the ads. Google uses machine algorithm to determine what your blogs are talking about. Please note it is a machine. So the keywords in your content are very important. They help Adsense to choose ads. You can imagine some keywords likely to worth more.

Try to write different type of blog. If you are interested only in FOREX, only those ads about FOREX would get displayed. Frankly speaking, this kind of sites is not suitable for Adsense. Change your blog settings to archive each passage. So every blog will signal to Adsense to display different ads. New ads tend to give you more money because they find new opportunities in your site.

It is no wonder that a lot of people make money by writing books on Adsense. Simply by sharing their experience on Adsense, they earn much money.

Exchange Traded Fund

2006-01-15T18:34:00.000-08:00

Many big companies died throughout the history. While the index like Dow Jones is still there, like a man still in his young age. That's the charm of a fund that tracks the index. An index tracking fund gives you confident that it is safe while it has potential to appreciate over years.

Here in Singapore we have only one "Exchange Traded Fund" that tracks STI. The fund buys in STI component stocks in appropriate weight. It makes best effort to track the STI. In my opinion, it outperformed the STI since its incubation in 2002. For example, the STI on 13/01/06 was 2405 while the Net Value per unit of STI-ETF was $24.87.

The exchange traded fund has another pro than normal fund: its liquidity. It can be traded on any day that SGX opens for share trading. Normal fund will be redeemable only twice per month.

Sense of Adsense

2006-01-07T06:23:00.000-08:00

Google Adsense has a good reason to call itself "sense", because it is targeting the advertisement basing on the hosting page content. If your page is talking about foreign exchange, it then chooses the FX ads to display on your page. Similarly, if your new post talks about share market, the ads will be stocks.

I found a truth: after I wrote a new post on my blog, the Adsense trended to accumulate more points to my Adsense account. I guess it is because that each new post causes Adsense to choose new ads to display on my page. The new ads usually worth more. By this mechanism, bloggers are encouraged to post more often.

Though it is enough good, I feel the Google Adsense is lacking presense to companies outside U.S. The ads almost come from U.S. companies. So they are less attractive to the users of Asian countries. The ads get less clicks.

Unit share market of SGX

2006-01-03T18:14:00.000-08:00

Everybody knows that there is a unit-share market in SGX, where you can buy and sell in numbers of 1 share. The board market requires in lots of 1000 shares otherwise indicated. However, most brokers need you call them to place orders in unit-share market. These offline orders' minimal commission is $30.

Here I wish to tell you there is an online trading system provided by POEMS. You can place orders in unit-share market by yourself. And the minimal charge is only $10!

For those small investors who want to INVEST in blue chips instead of TRADE on blue chip warrants, this trading tool is the best one.

Last suggestion: don't trade those penny stocks on unit-share market. Those penny stocks lack enough liquidity. Yesterday I sold NeraTel at 42 cents, while it is trading at 48 cents on broad market.

Foreign Exchange for small investors

2005-12-31T21:53:00.000-08:00

If you have only $2000, yet want to feel the foreign exchange market, what will you do? You may buy foreign currency notes from an "authorized money changer", and then put them at home. When the notes worth more, you go to that money changer to change back SingDollar.

However, the selling rate and buying rate may differ much at the money changers. Your potential profit is eroded much by them. Same problem exists in banks. And banks apply minimal amount of exchange when you do so.

I was always looking for an investment tool for small investors. It doesn't require minimal contract size. Yet it provides short spread of selling and buying rate. Money changers' selling and buying rate may have 250 ticks for US dollar. That is selling rate at i.e. 1.7000 and buying at 1.6750.

Finally such investment tool is introduced by POEMS Company. Its new product - FX INVEST provides a spread of only 50 ticks. The balance of your account even has interests. You use "bill payment" function of any bank's internet banking to transfer money to your FX INVEST account. You submit online request via POEMS website and POEMS will issue cashier's order to your designated bank account.

Bank Of Singapore

2005-12-26T20:02:00.000-08:00

If you are a foreigner, you might think "Bank of Singapore" is a big bank in Singapore, or at least, it is one of the largest banks. Many banks of "country_name" are central banks of that country. While in Singapore, if you ask a person in the street what the bank of Singapore is, he or she will be lost definitely. When I downloaded a document from bankers association of Singapore, I found at surprise that there were five local banks. Besides the big three: DBS, UOB, and OCBC, there were two others: Far Eastern Bank and Bank of Singapore. Because many of UOB materials include Far Eastern Bank, I know FEB is a subsidary of UOB. But OCBC seldom talks about Bank of Singapore. Until recently the interest battle of online banking accounts shall I know that Bank of Singapore is offering attractive interest rate of 1.9% p.a.

Bank of Singapore is actually 100% owned by OCBC. Its issued Cashier's Order is in name of OCBC to give reciever more confident. I think OCBC shall advertise more on its online e-bank arm.

Online Fund Transfer Security

2005-12-23T06:14:00.000-08:00

When it comes to online banking, people often worry about that his money would be transferred out without his notice. So some people disabled the "fund transfer" service. His internet banking only serves for balance enquiry purpose. Thanks to innovative thinking, now all banks force another way of verifying when customers wish to do online fund transfer. First, you must set up the potential payee. Then bank offers you a one time password to activate the setup. Only after that can you transfer money to that payee.

Different banks in Singapore provide quite different methods of obtaining the additional online password.

(1) DBS, UOB, and Citibank send the password to customer's mobile phone via SMS.

(2) OCBC and Maybank need customer to use phone banking to get the password.

(3) Standard Chartered Bank wishes customer to dial a dedicated number using his mobile phone, then listen the password be read out.

(4) ABN AMRO bank is the only bank that requires additional hardware ( a portable device ) to do online banking. The device will generate a dynamic password, together with your userid and static password to log in. After you login, you can setup the payee without other passwords.

Bank Deposits in Singapore

2005-12-19T21:00:00.000-08:00

Today I talk about 100% capital guaranteed investment. That's it! Bank deposits.

(1) eSaver - Standard Chartered Bank.
It is a saving account. You can withdraw money anytime. No minimal balance to maintain. The drawback is that you must transfer fund to other account to withdraw money. To withdraw over counter will incur $5 fee. The promotion rate is 2.45% per annual till 31/12/05. They haven't announced the rate for next year. The normal rate is 1.28%.

(2) iSAVvy - Maybank
Competing product with eSaver. But an ATM card is provided so that you can withdraw cash from ATM without charge. Nothing comes with no price. You should maintain at least $500 to avoid $2 monthly admin charge. To enjoy first three month high interest rate, the minimal balance is $5000. The rate is 2.38% for first 3 months. After that it is 1.38% ( balance must be over 5000, otherwise the rate is only 0.25% ). Today they even announced online Time Deposit: 2.88% for 12-month tenure. $25,000 to start.

(3) 10-month and 10-day fixed deposit - OCBC
Only $40,000 to open the account. High promotion interest rate at 2.79% per annual. May apply admin charge if withdraw premature.

(4) CPF fund - UOB
This is for those who have a lot of money in their CPF. Total $105,000 to open it. Interest rate is about 2.78%, higher than CPF board 2.5% rate.

(5) Unfixed time deposit - Citi Bank
$50,000 to open. Tenure is 1 year. After one month, you can withdraw partially without admin charge. The withdrawn part has 1.88%. The mature part has 2.68%. I like this one best. It can lock high rate for 1 year, while at same time you are free to withdraw. ( You can't close the account premature. You must leave there at least 5000 )

Reviews of Aug posts

2005-10-12T02:24:00.000-07:00

Although few people have visited my blog, I still post my reviews relating to previous passages.
(1) Lasseters disappointed me by declaring so little dividend. But if we pay attention to that it owns a lot of bank loans, little dividend is reasonable. I sold this counter.
(2) Best world did have peaked. Its price never reach 70 cents. Goh bak heng is keeping reducing his holdings.
(3) Eu Yan Sang hit record price after it released full financial report.
(4) Nera Tele and Nera Elec will report 3Q results this Friday. If they still make improvement on net profits, I will buy them during month Oct. to Dec. Their dividend ratio is attractive.

Last, if anyone has a good way to promote my blog, please leave comment to me. Big thanks.

Nera Tel and Nera Elec

2005-08-23T18:59:00.000-07:00

I find these two counters are very suitable to my investment appetite.

(1) I like those companies who have had net profit for many years. This means in the following years they much probably continue to make money. Nera Tel had profit for at least five years from 2000 to 2004. Even during 911 and SARS period they still had done well.

(2) Nera Tel doesn't borrow money. Since they don't need to expand, owing money is nothing but lost interest. This feature may be not attractive to those investors who wish gain money from companies merge and takeover.

(3) They had history of paying dividend since listed. As an investor, all I want is return. Nera Elec raised dividend to 1cent last FY. Nera Tel paid special dividend in 2002 when they got Nera Elect listed on SGX. These mean the board is not stingy to minor shareholders.

(4) Last, the share prices are quite stable. The movement range is between 50%, yet you still have chance to have much capital appreciation.

Lasseters International

2005-08-14T18:47:00.000-07:00

Lasseters is going to release its FY04/05 result soon. As the only casino concept stock that is listed at SGX, its price performance was not encouraging since its IPO last year. It moved within a thin range of 22c - 27c. While its financial result is not bad according to FY03/04 and 1H of FY04/05, will it report a glaring result and declare a good dividend?

(1) Firstly, we saw one of the directors was keeping buying its share. This shows they wish to boost its share price.

(2) Secondly, please read what they said in last FY annual report:

As a newly-listed company, we intend to utilise our
internal funds and IPO proceeds for further expansion
and investments through mergers and acquisitions. Hence,
the Directors have decided not to declared dividends for
the financial period just ended.
However, we are mindful that as a growing company, a
fine balance has to be struck between retaining funds
for expansion and cash for dividend payout, depending
on the situations and opportunities.

Lasseters has acquired some stakes in many projects. So i believe they will declare dividend this year.

(3) Besides the negative goodwill, last FY they gained 1Ac per share. This FY they will make at least 2.5Ac per share. Let's assume it will declare 1Ac dividend, the return/investment ratio is 5.2% already.

Low risk investments in Singapore

2005-08-13T17:37:00.000-07:00

The US interest rate has been raised to 3.5%. But here in Singapore the rate is still the lowest when it dropped to as low as 0.7% P.A. in year 2003. Thanks to foreign banks who put some good stuff to this stagnant market.

(1) eSave in Standard Chartered Bank is my first choice. It doesn't require minimal deposit, doesn't require fixed term. The rate is 1.88% P.A. But it is a pity that it will be down to 1.28% since 1 Sept. Another inconvenience is that it requires internet banking or phone banking to transfer funds.

(2) CitiBank gives us another choice. With a 12-month term deposit, you can enjoy the rate of 2% P.A. What's more, you can withdraw partial saving while keep the rest intact. The drawback is that the minimal deposit is $50,000. If I had that money i will repay my home loan first.

(3) Maybank gave me a shock when I saw its ad in June. It offered 2.3% at 2-year term with minimal sum of $20,001. And it pays interest in advance. So its effective interest rate is 2.4%. Today when I visit its website the ad has gone. So it is a good idea to visit their website frequently to see if they have any promotions.

(4) The last one is not a bank deposit actually. NTUC income is offering a single premium insurance. It matures in 2 years. You get total 4% return if you invest at least $30,000. If you invest $10,000, the rate is 1.95% P.A. Because it is NOT a deposit, if you withdraw it before mature, you could lose some capital.

Best World prices

2005-08-13T07:35:00.000-07:00

After its IPO at price of 30c, BWI was traded under water for almost one year. Until recently it went up like a rocket to 62c. If counting in bonus shares, the price actually reached 74c. What can we learn from it?

(1) Of course, firstly, the good financial results back it. It released 100% up net profit for 1H 2005 on July 28. But its price started to rise as early as June 15. So is there anything that hints us it will release good result?

(2) The board of directors is generous. Last year when issuing interim result, they didn't recommend dividend. But later they declared 0.625c interim dividend. Perhaps they wanted to boost share price by distribution. Good yield shares are always welcomed by investors.

(3) Another import event is that strategic investors, Dr Derek Goh and Mr. Goh Tiong Yong, had entered the game. Dr Tan & Dr. Hoan described them as friends.

(4) Last but not least, I think its share had peaked. I concluded this by: (1) Goh Bak Heng is selling his shares; (2) The Price Earning ratio is over 10 based on 62c; (3) The return is not attracting too, standing at 1c interim plus 2c final ( i guess ), that is 5% only.

Eu Yan Sang - hit record high price

2005-08-13T05:19:00.000-07:00

I think it is much possible due to my experience:

(1) Last FY it added dividend from 0.6c to 1.25c. This shows that the board is not stingy to minor shareholders.

(2) It used optimal words in 2Q and 3Q unaudited financial results and press releases. Like "Eu Yan Sang On Track for Record Earnings in FY2005".

(3) A substantial shareholder is accumulating its shares in recently months. It is Aberdeen Asset Management Asia Ltd.

(4) Last but not least, its share price has gained from 40c to 45c in last month. It is usually a positive sign when a stock gains before it releases financial report.