Red, Red and More Red.

Straits Time	3511.13	-15.95	(-0.45%)
SENSEX	14411.38	-96.83	(-0.67%)
UOB Sesdaq	214.63	-2.69	(-1.24%)
KLSE Comp	1339.18	-3.82	(-0.28%)
Nikkei 225	17588.26	-84.30	(-0.48%)
Hang Seng	20293.76	-175.83	(-0.86%)
Dow Jones	13490.46	-30.88	(-0.23%)
KOSPI	1662.72	+0.92	(+0.06%)
SSEC	4053.09	-281.84	(-6.50%)

The trading ended in a sea of red. Sell in May effect sets in the final trading day of the month. Most inflated counters were thumped down drastically. Cautious investors mood ahead after Vesak's day and especially it is a Friday. However, with such bargain and attractive price, there will a slight recovery of trading band of not more than 15 points. Correction is actually necessary to keep the market healthy and viable.

China bubble had not been burst yet but there have been serious stances taken by the Chinese government on curbing their stock market bubble by advising student not to play in stock market and open up foreign stock investment opportunities to their country man. It may well be that this overheating trend may be cooled off.

ARC Market Pulse Portfolio

Counter	Qty	Buying Price	Current Price	Cost	Value
GlobalTest	3000	0.25	0.24	776	720
Ban Joo	5000	0.095	0.14	501.5	700
Acma	8000	0.13	0.12	1066.4	960

Acma retreated to 0.12, Global Test remain stagnant as there is no clue or direction for tech stocks whilst Ban Joo were sold down in the earlier session which see it unchanged at the end of the day when shortists covered back their position.

Long term counters: Sembcorp propelled on to $5.50 despite thunder storm whilst Comfort holding strong ground at $2.200.

As you can see, Kospi is the only index, unaffected by the global correction, because it really has corrected enough when the other indices' bull running like there is no tomorrow. Room for growth - Thailand, India and Korea equity funds. Election is coming for Taiwan, may want to monitor Taiwan's equity performance soon.

Any opinion herein is made on a general basis and is not an inducement to trade.

(EXTRACT) SOURCE - REUTER

Wednesday May 30, 8:06 AM

Malaysia Hot Stocks-Market seen jittery after China clampdown

KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 (Reuters) - Malaysian shares are likely to fall for a second straight day on Wednesday, after China's move to cool its overheating stock market added to fears of a technical correction in Asian markets, dealers said.

"The market is jittery, very jittery," said a dealing head with a bank-backed brokerage. "It's scared of China. The U.S. rose overnight but the undertone, with China raising taxes on stock trades, could lead markets downwards."

China's authorities raised stamp duties on share trades, a move seen as a bid to clamp down on the overheated market. China's Ministry of Finance made the midnight announcement through the official Xinhua news agency, an unusual move that underlined deep government concerns about its stock market.

In the 16-year history of the modern Chinese stock market, an increase in stamp duty has always caused a market slump over the following few weeks or ended a bull run.

On Tuesday, Malaysia's benchmark Composite Index fell 0.2 percent to 1,343 points led by declines in third-largest lender Public Bank Bhd and Maxis Communications , Malaysia's largest mobile phone firm.

The May futures contract put the key stock index at 1,338 points and June futures put it at 1,329 points.

"Flows are light, with a net sell (bias), said a dealer with a foreign brokerage. "We expect the market to remain rangebound on a lack of fresh leads." He noted that Asian exchange-traded funds were mostly higher overnight, with Malaysia up 0.8 percent.

Malaysian cement-maker Cement Industries of Malaysia Bhd could be in focus after its 51 percent-owner, state-controlled developer UEM World Bhd , said sale talks with France's Vicat were still ongoing.

U.S. stocks ended higher on Tuesday, helped by a wave of takeover news, but China's move to cool off its skyrocketing stock market limited Wall Street's broader advance and raised concerns about a global equity sell-off.

The Dow Jones industrial average edged up 0.10 percent to 13,521.34. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.16 percent to 1,518.11 and the Nasdaq Composite Index 0.58 percent to 2,572.06.

Market Recovered; Will It Still Move Up?

Straits Time	3513.37	+26.74	(+0.77%)
SENSEX	14397.89	+59.44	(+0.41%)
UOB Sesdaq	218.27	+0.36	(+0.17%)
KLSE Comp	1339.08	-1.90	(-0.14%)
Nikkei 225	17587.59	+106.38	(+0.61%)
Hang Seng	20529.76	+9.10	(+0.04%)
Dow Jones	13507.28	+66.15	(+0.49%)
KOSPI	1657.91	+13.35	(+0.81%)
SSEC	4272.11	+92.33	(+2.21%)

Based on today's recovery, I think market today had shown some signs of buying hypes. People are buying and thinking they are buying on bargain. I believe the market will be mixed with some counters in favour up next. STI will have Gain / Loss band of not more than 10 points tomorrow. SSEC really is persistent in raising its foothold while HSI shows signs of cautions.

Pennies are mostly in the top volumes. Among them all, Armstrong and GKE Int are the most popular even in a downtrend market. Soup Res debuted without a bang; unlike energy and commodities sensitive counters, its not really that speculative. Acma seems attractive at its currently value. Have bought Acma slightly higher at 0.13 which ended at 0.125.

ARC Market Pulse Portfolio

Counter	Qty	Buying Price	Current Price	Cost	Value
GlobalTest	3000	0.25	0.24	776	720
Ban Joo	5000	0.095	0.15	501.5	750

It is really not advisable to cling on to greater China fund but if you must buy and do not want to miss out on its gravity defying movement, you can buy double diversified funds or Asia based equity funds. It the spotlight, Korea, Thailand and Indonesia funds. Maintained buy.

Any opinion herein is made on a general basis and is not an inducement to trade.

(EXTRACT) SOURCE - REUTERS

Emerging debt cautious on China, U.S. Treasuries

By Walter Brandimarte

NEW YORK, May 27 (Reuters) - Emerging sovereign debt investors will likely start the week in a cautious mood, after the U.S. market holiday on Monday, watching the performance of Chinese stocks and the U.S. Treasury bond market.

Investors in riskier emerging market stocks and bonds were unnerved by comments last week by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan who suggested Chinese stocks were overvalued.

In addition, the rise in U.S. Treasury bond yields in the past week has attracted some investment flows out of emerging debt markets.

Overall the emerging debt market ended last week with losses of almost 0.5 percent for the week, according to the benchmark JP Morgan's EMBI+ index .

Yield spreads between emerging debt and U.S. Treasuries, a key gauge of risk aversion, ended at 152 basis points on Friday, only 1 basis point wider for the week, after hitting an all-time low of 149 basis points on Wednesday.

"My expectation for the week is positive because last Thursday's correction created some value in the market," said Ricardo Amorim, head of Latin America Research at WestLB in New York.

Amorim said, however, he is worried that another possible sell-off of Chinese stocks could spill over to other emerging markets, as it did earlier this year in February.

"When that happens, emerging markets may sell off a lot. Until then, they should keep their upward trend."

Analysts also fear that rising returns on U.S. Treasuries may spur a stronger sell-off in emerging markets, especially if yields on the benchmark 10-year notes keep climbing to a range between 4.9 percent and 5.0 percent. On Friday, the 10-year note yield was around 4.86 percent.

U.S. jobs and inflation data due to be reported in the coming week are also expected to make investors cautious.

The U.S. labor market has been strong with unemployment around 4.5 percent -- a six year low -- and inflation has been moderating in recent months, after crude oil and U.S. gasoline prices both reached record levels last year, but the Federal Reserve remains concerned about inflation.

The minutes of the Fed's latest monetary policy meeting, due to reported on Wednesday, will also be closely monitored by investors.

Slight Recovery Expected

Straits Time	3486.63	-43.63	(-1.24%)
BT-SRI	1743.75	-23.59	(-1.33%)
UOB Sesdaq	217.91	+0.53	(+0.24%)
KLSE Comp	1339.08	-1.90	(-0.14%)
Nikkei 225	17481.21	-215.76	(-1.22%)
Hang Seng	20520.66	-278.31	(-1.34%)
Dow Jones	13441.13	-84.52	(-0.62%)
NASDAQ	2537.92	+0.00	(+0.00%)

The decline continue globally. Correction naturally take place. STI fell 1.24% to 3438.68. After such a correction, a recovery will naturally follow suit.

Looking ahead, penny in play. Among those in play, GKE Int, Eagles and Ban Joo should resume uptrend movement as interest accumulated and the increase was not abrupt and unrealistic. Yangzijiang should recover slightly on Monday and resume uptrend as it is discerned that this stock has attracted huge interest partly due to its shipping sector business and seemingly unlimited possibility. China Energy is a tricky one; good news pouring in, move to new heights. But it should correct substantially soon as fuel price seems to have stablised.

Within my long term position, Comfortdelgro remained at $2.180 whilst Sembcrop shed slightly to $5.350. Positive and maintained hold.

ARC Market Pulse Portfolio:-

Counter Qty Buying Price Current Price Cost Value GlobalTest 3000 0.25 0.245 776 735 Ban Joo 5000 0.095 0.125 475 625

As what I thought, Ban Joo should be in play and is still in beginning of accumulation. So I bought 5 lots at $0.095. The balance now is $749 and current value of portfolio is $1,360.00.

In fund's perspective, I am very positive on Korea and Thai equity funds.

Gold price is rather weak at the moment based on the 1 year chart. Resources equity funds or even counters can be considered in the near term.

Any opinion herein is made on a general basis and is not an inducement to trade.

(EXTRACT) Business Times

Published May 25, 2007

Greenspan sends chill across region

ST Index falls 0.8 per cent after the former Fed chief compounds fears of a China stock bubble

By TEH HOOI LING
SENIOR CORRESPONDENT

RETIRED US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan still packs a punch when it comes to having an impact on financial markets around the world. His comments, to a conference in Madrid via satellite, that China faces a 'dramatic contraction' and that the rally in Chinese shares 'is clearly unsustainable' sent stock prices in Asia tumbling across the board yesterday.

Mr Greenspan joins China's central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan and Li Ka-shing, Asia's richest man, in expressing concern about a China stock 'bubble'.

The Straits Times Index shed 28.75 points or 0.8 per cent to 3,530.26. It was off its intra-day low of 3,510.19. Meanwhile the benchmark index in Australia was down by 1.2 per cent, Malaysia 1 per cent, Thailand 1.4 per cent, Jakarta 1.2 per cent, and Vietnam 2.5 per cent. Ironically, Shanghai and Shenzhen registered smaller losses of 0.5 and 0.7 per cent respectively, while Hong Kong was down a marginal 0.2 per cent.

One Chinese investor described Mr Greenspan's warnings on the Chinese market as similar to throwing small pieces of ice cube into boiling water - it will do little to cool it.

Leading the STI lower were Keppel Corp, which declined 40 cents or 3.5 per cent to $11.10. Banks like DBS and OCBC were also hefty losers.

'There is a lack of fresh local factors, so people are a bit more sensitive to external factors like any news about the health of the US or the Chinese economy or markets,' AFP quoted Najeeb Jarhom, head of research at Fraser Securities, as saying.

Meanwhile, Hugh Young, managing director at Aberdeen Asset Management Asia, was quoted as saying that 'it's hard to be bullish about anything at the moment because everything has done so well'. China, he warned, 'is another one of these classic hot and speculative markets that will end in tears'.

While dealers generally agreed that the market was overdue for a consolidation given the substantial gains it has made this year - the STI is up more than 16 per cent - they said a sharp correction is unlikely, given Singapore's strong economic fundamentals and continued flows of liquidity onto the market.

Among the notable gainers yesterday was Transpac, which surged 44 cents or 11 per cent to $4.54. Wilmar put on 30 cents or 9 per cent to $3.60, while K-Reit climbed 13 cents or just under 5 per cent to $2.90.

Also among the gainers was Singapore Exchange (SGX), which on Wednesday said that it was revamping its listing rules to transform the second board into one similar to London's Alternative Investment Market. Analysts generally view that positively, with JP Morgan upgrading the stock to 'overweight' from 'neutral'. The US broking firm lifted its target for SGX to $9.20, on the expectation that it could generate more volume as a result of a reduction in bid-ask spreads. Yesterday, SGX ended five cents up at $7.60.

Overall, excluding warrants, losers overwhelmed gainers by 385 to 117. Some 2.35 billion Singapore-dollar shares worth $2.28 billion changed hands.

Morning Update

Straits Time	3530.26	+0.00	(+0.00%)
BT-SRI	1767.34	+0.00	(+0.00%)
UOB Sesdaq	217.38	+0.00	(+0.00%)
KLSE Comp	1340.98	-14.00	(-1.03%)
Nikkei 225	17696.97	+0.00	(+0.00%)
Hang Seng	20798.97	+0.00	(+0.00%)
Dow Jones	13441.13	-84.52	(-0.62%)
NASDAQ	2537.92	-39.13	(-1.52%)

Dow closed pretty badly, extended loss of 84.52 or 0.62%.

Nasdaq lost 1.52% or 39.13. Chips and Tech will be affected.

Nikkei start off in red after a few days of consecutive greens.