STI down 1369 to close at 3504

STI dropped intraday to around 3490 before rebounding and testing 3500. Considering tested? I don't know. STI closed down 1.69 (0.05%) to close at 3504, which is still above 3500. I would consider that a good sign that intraday, even though support is broken, the closing price (the most important price) is still above 3500. Volume transacted is 2.36 billion, slightly lower than yesterdays.

I wasn't able to monitor the market at all today, so judging from the market summary provided by sgx, seems like banks had a little selldown today. Seems alright...nothing to worry about. Selling wasn't broadbased and wasn't fierce. Construction almost lost back everything it gained - not a surprise while draggy authorities refuse to release any construction contracts announcements.

A few announcements caught my eye:

1. Swiber appointed new VP for its Brunei operation. That person is a brunei resident with 'extensive working experience in Brunei'. I especially like the way Swiber keeps getting experienced and well-connected key appointment holders to spearhead their expansion plans into new regions. They really spare no effort to recruit the best person to open the ground for thier new operations. All the troops are ready, so I guess we're just waiting for the key ingredient - contracts winnings in these new regions :) Stay tuned for more swiber announcements :P

2. Noble Group, global supply chain manager of agricultural, industrial and energy products, has been named to the Forbes Fabulous 50. The list includes studies of companies with long term profitability, sales and earnings growth, stock price appreciation and projected earnings for EVERY company in regions with revenue or market cap of $5 billion and above. Guess which other companies in SGX are in?

It's Neptune Orient lines (NOL) and Sembcorp industries. No surprise for sembcorp because that mega company really established a foothold in quite a number of industries (somemore is govt linked). NOL is the surprise here. Looks like I must re-look this stock again as I admit I never really like the shipping business. But looking at the way NOL cheong and cheong, my opinion must be wrong. Shipping freight rates increment is the reason why NOL is climbing higher and higher (correct me if I'm wrong L.S). These companies are high profile because if I'm a fund manager who wants to beat STI (hence won't buy into STI index straight away), I'll be looking at these kind of companies. Hmm, food for thought.

Dow is behaving very well tonight. I wonder why and wonder if this is just a bull trap. Anyway, no point thinking so much. Dow is currently at +123 pts, while Europe almost all green (gains are quite substantial - around 0.8% like that).