Ernest Lim's investing blog

Unique insights into SGX small caps

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Jiutian – proxy to economic recovery and exposure to EV sector (2 Dec 20)

el15

Dear all Since my write-up “Singapore – Asia’s worst equity market YTD, any opportunities ahead?” posted on my blog on 1 Nov 2020 (click HERE) citing opportunities in our Singapore market, Singapore market (as represented by STI) has clocked in its best monthly return in Nov 2020 since May 2009, up 15.8%! In the U.S., the strong market sentiment is filtering to its small mid cap space with Russell 2000 hitting record high last week. For those readers who are looking for Singapore small caps which are overlooked by the market, Jiutian Chemical (“Jiutian”) may be an interesting company to […]

Singapore – Asia’s worst equity market YTD, any opportunities ahead? (29 Oct 20)

el15

Dear all It is less than a week from the U.S. election. U.S. markets are understandably jittery. S&P500 has fallen 316 points, or 8.9% from its intraday high of 3,550 on 12 Oct 2020 to touch an intraday low 3,234 on 30 Oct 20. In fact, S&P500 has tumbled 195 points or 5.6% this week. S&P500 closed at 3,270 on 30 Oct. The media has written extensively on the risks surrounding U.S. election since months ago hence the election event risk is hardly a new one. Examples of risks which media has written about is the possibility on contested election […]

Riverstone – Is the recent 32% decline justified? (12 Sep 2020)

el15

Riverstone recently caught my attention. It has tumbled approximately 32% from an intraday high of $4.90 on 7 Aug 2020 to close $3.33 on 11 Sep 2020. One client even thought that Riverstone has already undergone a bonus issue! The recent weakness is likely attributed to its co-founder selling 15.5m shares at $3.95 (Bloomberg cites a 90-day lockup on seller); the possibility of a vaccine resulting in demand for gloves and consequently their average selling price (“ASP”) falling off the cliff and some Malaysia investors selling shares to raise cash, as their moratorium on loan repayment ends (click HERE for […]

S&P500 has rebounded 31% from 23 Mar 20! Time to buy, hold or sell (19 Apr 20)?

el15

S&P500 has staged a whopping 683 points, or 31% rebound from its intraday low of 2,192 to close 2,875 on 17 Apr 20. Many clients have asked me (almost daily) whether we have already seen the bottom and is this a good time to buy stocks etc. At 2,875, S&P500 is just 15% away from its record intraday high of 3,394 on 19 Feb 2020. The rally in Wall Street is at a stark contrast to grim news from Main Street in terms of job losses; significant number of deaths from Covid 19; lockdowns and poor corporate results. Both bull […]

Chasen – a bullish double bottom making in the making? (23 Oct 19)

el15

Dear all, This week, Chasen catches my attention as it seems to be forming a bullish double bottom on its chart. I have appended my personal chart analysis, together with some potential positive and negative points on the company. Read on for more below.   Chasen’s chart analysis Based on my personal interpretation of Chasen’s chart, it seems to have tested its double bottom neckline around $0.070-0.072 for the past few days. For the past two days, it managed to close higher consecutively with above average volume. In fact, Chasen closed today with 7.3m shares changing hands, 3.8x above its […]

Nasdaq – potential bearish head and shoulders formation in the making? (29 Sep 19)

el15

With reference to my earlier write-up (click HERE) titled “S&P500 at 2,979 – limited potential upside (8 Sep 19)”, S&P500 touched intraday highs of 3,021 – 3,022 on 12 Sep 2019 and 19 Sep 2019 but it was still lower than the record intraday high of 3,028 on 26 July 2019. S&P500 closed at 2,962 on 27 Sep 2019. Hang Seng and STI touch one-month intraday highs on 13 Sep 2019 before profit taking sets in. October is likely a volatile month ahead given (just to cite a few examples) more news on trade talks (e.g. U.S vs China; U.S. […]

S&P500 logged its largest one day fall since Jan. Buy more, or head to the exit? (27 Mar 2019)

el15

Dear readers, Last Fri, S&P500 logged its largest one day fall since 3 Jan 2019, due in part to the weak European PMI and the yield curve inversion between U.S. 3-month bill and 10-year note yields. At the time of writing this, Dow closed 0.55% higher on Tues as U.S. 10 year bond yields stabilise. Is last Fri’s fall the precursor to something more serious? Or it is a false alarm?   First things first, what are the reasons for the sharp rally since late Dec? S&P500 has rallied approximately 20.1%, or 471 points from the intra-day low of 2,347 […]

S&P500 has slumped 13.7% in Dec, largest percentage fall since 1931! Has the bull market ended? (23 Dec 18)

el15

Dear all After hitting an intra-day high of 2,941 on 21 Sep 2018, S&P500 has tumbled 17.9% or 525 points to close 2,416 on 21 Dec 2018. In fact, S&P500 has just logged the worst monthly performance in Dec since 1931! Dow has also fallen 3,535 points from the intraday high of 25,980 on 3 Dec 2018 and 4,507 points from the intraday high of 26,952 on 3 Oct 2018. What is happening? Is Armageddon coming?   Most things have not changed since 21 Sep, except for… In Sep, when S&P500 hit 2,940, the usual concerns were also there, namely […]

STI has dropped almost 17% since 2 May! Is a bear market coming? (14 Oct 18)

el15

Dear all, U.S. equity markets have logged their worst weekly performance in the past six months. For our local market, STI has dropped 16.7% from an intra-day high of 3,642 on 2 May 2018 to an intra-day low of 3,035 on 11 Oct 2018. It closed at 3,069 on 12 Oct 2018. Is a bear market coming? There are mixed views. Bears are saying that we have not reached the bottom yet. Some perma-bears are even saying this may be the start of the bear market. Bulls are saying that this represents a window of opportunity to accumulate stocks on […]

STI – down 9.4% since 2 May. Correction coming, or buying opportunity? (19 Jun 18)

el15

With reference to my market outlook HERE posted on 11 May 2018, I mentioned at that time that I  have started to sell into strength, as I am cautious on the overall market. I updated on 30 May 2018 (click HERE) that STI is likely to trade sideways with downward bias. Separately, my clients would have been notified on 12 Jun 2018 morning that I have already reduced my percentage invested to approximately 40% as I believe market is likely to trend downwards in the next couple of weeks. In the span of four trading days, STI has dropped 148 […]