Singapore Hot Stocks-SingTel down after UBS cuts target
SINGAPORE, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Shares of Singapore
Telecommunications (SingTel) (STEL.SI), Southeast Asia's
largest telecom, fell as much as 4.2 percent on Wednesday after
UBS cut its price target for the stock to S$3.46 from S$4.60.
"There is no safe haven right now, once the markets tank, everything is going to come down, even the most defensive counters," said a Singaporean trader.
The selling came after SingTel closed around 17 percent higher on Tuesday.
UBS analysts said in a report SingTel may continue to face pressure in the near term on weaker earnings contributions from subsidiaries and negative investor sentiment towards emerging market exposure.
By 0602 GMT, SingTel's shares were down 3.3 percent, trading at S$2.33, underperforming the benchmark Straits Times Index .FTSTI which was flat.
OCBC
Shares of Overseas-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC.SI) fell 1.8 percent on Wednesday, bucking gains by other lenders on concerns its performance will be hurt by insurance arm Great Eastern (GELA.SI).
Around 0350 GMT, OCBC was down 1.8 percent compared with gains of 3.3 percent by United Overseas Bank (UOBH.SI) and 6.3 percent by DBS Group (DBSM.SI) percent.
DBS is not involved in insurance while UOB's insurance business is relatively small compared with Great Eastern, the largest life insurer in Singapore and Malaysia.
RBS analyst Trevor Kalcic, who has a "hold" recommendation on OCBC and "buy" calls on DBS and UOB, said OCBC had poorer earnings visibility.
"The group's life insurance earnings are being weighed down by expanding credit spreads and some other life insurance peculiarities," he wrote.
OCBC's "relative over-valuation versus DBS limits upside potential in our view," he added.
A trader with a local brokerage said the Singapore banks' share price movements also reflected a correction of previous price changes, noting government-linked DBS had fallen much more than the two family-controlled lenders.
The benchmark Straits Times Index .FTSTI was up 1.46 percent.
REITS
Shares of Singapore real estate investment trusts (REITs) rose on Wednesday, helped by improved sentiment after Malaysia's YTL Corp bought a 26 percent stake in Macquarie Prime REIT MMPR.SI at a more-than-50-percent premium.
"YTL's investment indicates there are investors who are confident in the longer-term prospects of Singapore property," Goldman Sachs said in a report.
"We view this development as positive for Macquarie Prime REIT and for the Singapore REIT sector."
Around 0210 GMT, CapitaCommercial Trust (CACT.SI) was up 6.8 percent, while CapitaMall Trust (CMLT.SI) was 7.3 percent higher.
Macquarie Prime was flat at 54 Singapore cents after gaining as much as 9.3 percent earlier in the session.
YTL, a property and infrastructure conglomerate, said on Tuesday it will buy 26 percent of Macquarie Prime and 50 percent of the REIT's management firm for S$285 million. The price of S$0.82 a unit represents a 52 percent premium to the REIT's last traded price and a 49 percent discount to book value.
The benchmark Straits Times Index .FTSTI was up 1.8 percent. (Reporting by Laurence Tan and Ramya Jaidev; Editing by Kevin Lim and Saeed Azhar)
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