Post General Elections 2015 + Portfolio Update. Do have a read!

And so, the people of Singapore have spoken. In what was a rather surprising result, the tailwind shifted to the sails of the PAP party's ship. The electoral results were pretty conclusive which resulted in a much better performance of the governing party. The picture below shows the soon-to-be party coverage of Singapore. I won't state too much comments with regards to the electoral result as this would not be the appropriate forum. However what I will say is that I do hope to see a more balanced parliamentary coverage in future elections. This should only benefit a first-world country like Singapore truly is, or is trying to become.

As shared previously, I would be sharing a brief update of my portfolio progress. As can be seen in the Bloomberg screenshot shared below, the portfolio is still deep in red territory. However, what is positive is that we have shifted somewhat from the steepest declines seen in mid-August when overall losses were in the double digit % terms.

Stock Portfolio as of 12 Sept 2015

Moving ahead, I will be holding unto the direction of my portfolio steadily. The course has not changed and in the months ahead, I most probably will be adding unto select positions. It is highly probable that I will be adding positions in either Jardine Matheson (JMH) or Singtel. The main emphasis for me is to identify companies that either have large existing moats (JMH) that are trading at temporary lower prices or those that are able to use technological innovations to improve both the efficiency and diversity of their businesses (Singtel). In other words, businesses that are able to grow and sustain either their top-line growth or profit margins.

There are certain components of the portfolio that I have a keen eye on in terms of looking out for potential headwinds. This would be the REITs segment (with rising rates and increased penetration of online shopping) and Sembcorp Ind. (weak oil prices). I do not expect to be adding unto those positions at the moment given the uncertain macro risks they still face.

Lastly, there are the quality stocks which I own but with still lofty valuations. These would be the likes of Raffles Medical and ComfortDelgro. They remain great businesses but I remain hesitant to build those positions until the prices make more sense from a valuation perspective.

Dividends for the portfolio remain strong and by the end of 2015, a total of $2,500 worth of dividends will have been paid (based on the current positionings). I'm really glad as this presents a small step in my journey to investing full time and building a solid and sustainable passive income stream.

Will look to write some detailed analyses on both Jardine and Singtel in days to come. In the meanwhile have a wonderful Sat. and a good post election day ahead! As usual, back to my books and more reading on financial statement analysis :)

Signing Off

Transitioning Stock Investor

Interesting Dilemma: Sharing my Thoughts

Good Saturday morning folks!

It's election fever here in Singapore as we are in the midst of our elections to vote for the next party to be in parliament. My vote is still undecided as a myriad of topics emerge for both deliberations and considerations. Usually in the past, there is an 'election effect' that we would see for Singapore stocks. However, with the current overall market volatility this effect has been completely dilluted.

Nonetheless, I remain steadfast in having strong belief in our local companies. More so of the ones that I have invested in. In recent weeks I have been faced with a dilemma.

- Do I average down only on some of my heavily beaten down positions?: OCBC Bank (11% down), Jardine Matheson (11% down) & Sembcorp (17% down).

- Or do I maintain allocation discipline and add evenly across all names?: Currently I have 8 names in the portfolio which has not changed for the last 6 months: OCBC Bank, Sembcorp Industries, Jardine Matheson Holdings, CapitalandMall Trust, Mapletree Commercial Trust, Singtel, ComfortDelgro and Raffles Medical.

- Or do I add positions to the ones that have continued to hold up well?: Comfortdelgro and Raffles Medical, both positions are the top performers in my portfolio.

As I type this and with limited resources at any one point, I'm still pondering on the next step to take. However and I say this with immense pride, I am glad that I rejected the urge to panic sell or to re-consolidate certain positions indiscrimately. With proper planning and selective stock picking, it became apparently clear and more so during the recent market madness that the companies which I have chosen are solid names that I would want to add even more when markets rotate.
So I'm glad my decision moving forward is skewed towards where to ADD rather than where to SELL as there is no impairment I see at all to any of the 8 businesses that I have stakes in. Nonetheless and on the flip-side, in a bullish market if any of the positions have risen to levels that I feel are prime for trimming, the appropriate rebalancing will be done. This was done a couple of times on both the Comfortdelgro and Raffles Medical positions earlier this year (for those of you who have been following my blog you may have read those earlier posts).

So remember, to empower your portfolio you need to have faith in the companies you put your hard earned money in. Not blind faith I have to reiterate, but faith stemming from hard work and research in the companies you own.

If you are new to investing and would like to construct a portfolio for a start, you may wish to follow my selections and get updated via this blog. However, please do not take this as buy-sell recommendations but they are suggestions on how to construct a proper stock portfolio. This will hopefully set you on the course to a better financial future and less reliance on your active work income.

Ending off with sharing some of my dividend updates for Sept below:

*Dividend Update for Sept
- Scrip reinvestment elected: OCBC Bank $360
- Scrip reinvestment elected: Jardine Matheson US$38

Signing Off and Have a Great Weekend
Transitioning Stock Investor

Earnings Season - Portfolio Update

Hi all, it's been a week since I last blogged as I was away on holiday in HK and what a hot holiday it was as the temperatures there just were sky high.

Nonetheless, as I was in HK I still kept a close watch on the markets in general. It was earnings reporting season for a host of companies in Singapore, which included names like Comfortdelgro, Singtel, Sembcorp Industries, Jardine Matheson Holdings. Of these names all reported solid earnings except Jardine which saw a firm-wide knock on the profits of its businesses.

I would be expecting a bumper crop of dividends for Sept of around $500 plus in which they will be entirely reinvested in their existing holdings.

What we also saw recently was a massive sell-down of many stocks mainly due to flowover concerns from China's recent devaluation of its RMB, not once but twice. This leaves many of the prices of the companies within my portfolio at rather attractive levels. I may consider either adding unto my REIT positions (ie. Capitaland Mall Trust and Mapletree Commercial Trust) or adding unto a postion to Comfortdelgro, Singtel or Sembcorp Industries. I am still undecided at the moment but will commit the funds later this month.

Meanwhile, it's more studies on my CFA Level 2 and just monitoring the market dynamics in general. Will update again when I further consolidate my portfolio with new additions to my existing holdings + reinvestment of the incoming dividends.

Signing Off
Transitioning Stock Investor

Market and My Portfolio

This week has broadly been a good week with a little bitter sweet taste in my mouth. Most of the positions in my portfolio have been resilient and have recovered some of its drops seen in June. I sold off 1000 shares of Raffles Medical to fund a recent watch purchase last week and lo and behold this counter shot up into the hemisphere yesterday and finished at a crazy price of $4.90. I'm glad I still have 1,022 shares of this counter but lament the fact that I probably should have let go of some of my loss making Sembcorp Ind. holdings instead. Oh well, we all don't have a crystal ball do we but lessons learnt. Nevertheless my portfolio should always be looked at as a Long Term proposition and no more of such monkey business (although I have a nicely added watch to my collection lol).

I'm gonna post some comments of some of my holdings.

1. Raffles Medical - I seriously don't know what happened to this stock. It shot up c.4% yesterday and now I'm sitting on a nice 24% profit on this position. I definitely will look to add on in further but does anyone know what caused the sudden uptick in this counter's price movement? I O/W this company provided at more sensible prices.

2. Comfortdelgro - I added on 300 shares at $3.06 yesterday to this counter. This is after I took some money off the table 2000 shares at $3.21 before the Greek crisis unravelled. This turned out to be a pretty good move and I'll be looking to add on more shares to this company which I still favour alot (stable and strong ROE, strong cashflows and balance sheet, solid and diversified business model). I look to continually O/W this company.

3. Capitamall Trust - It was in the news recently regarding two sets of updates. Firstly it announced that it would be buying over Bedok Mall from its parent company Capitaland. Most of this will be funded by debt and some by issuance of additional units to its parent. Now, I'm not too excited about this move and whether the purchase adds significant value to CMT's portfolio. My parents still stay in Bedok and I frequent the mall occasionally. Let's just say that I have doubts that this is a superior mall and that the crowds that I witness are fantastic. The projected yield of c. 5% from this mall also is similar to the current yield of CMT's portfolio so again I don't see much of a quantum leap. Anyways, we wait with abated breath on how this develoment takes shape.
The second development is CMT's announcement of either refurnishing or divestinf Funan Digitamall. This to me is a good move as I have never been a fan of Funan and struggle to understand what is the added value of this IT centric mall. It has also seemed to be positioned awkwardly as people still somewhat flock to Sim Lim for IT related stuff. Get rid of this holding I say and so be it.
The above two developments just set me thinking on CMT's positionings and the retail landscape in Singapore. I currently U/W this sector and will not be looking to add unto my REITs positionings except probably for Mapletree Comm. whereby I see positive developments for Vivocity.

4. OCBC Bank - It was reported in the news recently that our 3 local banks, DBS, UOB and OCBC will be expected to report stable and good earnings. Let's see but I strongly feel that the current price of OCBC at $10.33 is grossly undervalued and has a long way up to go. I am looking to O/W this holding.

What else do you guys think? Let me know :)

Signing Off
Transitioning Stock Investor

Market Catalysts and Quick Portfolio Update

Looking at the current market today, there will be some short term catalysts that will be of interest.

Firstly, it has just been confirmed that an agreement has just been reached on a Greek bailout plan. This deal when voted into the Greek government will hopefully keep Greece in the Euro and Grexit will not occur. In fact, it further shows the solidarity of the Euro and keeps the other countries that went through austerity (ie Spain, Portugal, etc) happy. I see this as a positive catalyst.

In the Chinese stock market, I see a longer term systematic issue. Nevertheless, the recent moves by the Chinese government to steady the ship and prop the market up has went some way to steady the market. To me, in the long term the Chinese investor needs to learn from past lessons, but at least for now things look better than a few weeks ago. I similarly see this as a positive situation.

In terms of the local stock market, a slew of companies are poised to announce earnings with the next month. All of the stocks in my current portfolio are slated to announce earnings during this time period. I attach a nice screenshot of the positive price action today:

Watchlist of My Current Stock Portfolio (Source: sgx.com)

I await better results especially from the less performing companies: Sembcorp Industries and Jardine Matheson. I hope that my trust in these companies will pay off in terms of better earnings numbers.
I continue to be fairly confident in the earnings of the core companies in my portfolio: Singtel, OCBC, ComfortDelgro and Raffles Medical. I similarly expect the REITS in my portfolio to continue their good performance: Capitamall Trust and Mapletree Commercial Trust.

I will be taking a break from adding to positions in the current month as I continue to build my warchest. I recently sold a holding of Raffles Medical (at a profit of c.S$700) to fund a watch purchase. Oh well, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, but I definitely look to lessen such activities moving forward.

The markets do look very interesting now and some of the positions in my portfolio looking prime for adding, especially Singtel, ComfortDelgro and Raffles Medical. Will closely monitor these positions and update accordingly when I make stock additions. As of now, I relaxingly sit back and let the portfolio recover and continue to churn out its dividends.

Signing Off
Transitioning Stock Investor