A quick guide to the top 12 stocks for 2013

Guess which stocks soared an impressive 20%.

According to the OCBC, the STI has moved up 2.7% in the past three weeks, ushering in optimism for 2013. This was partly due to the US House of Representatives finally passing legislation to avert income tax increases.

Markets worldwide rallied on this development and the STI also powered ahead. The STI touched a recent new high of 3225.22 on Friday. "We are re-visiting our stock picks for 2013 which included Biosensors, City Developments, CapitaMalls Asia, CapitaMall Trust, DBS, Ezion Holdings, Keppel Corp, M1, Starhill Global REIT,
Sembcorp Marine, UOB and Venture Corporation. From our list, all stocks have shown gains with the exception of M1, down a slight 2.9%. Despite the slight depreciation from M1, our portfolio of stock picks has outperformed the STI with gains of 4.0% (versus the STI’s gain of 2.7% for the same period)," OCBC said.

Here's more from OCBC:

Topping the list is Ezion Holdings, up 20% so far and the best performer in the list. We continue to have a BUY on the stock and recently raised our fair value to S$2.05 (see report titled “Higher valuations are justified” dated 3 Jan 2013 for more information).

Besides Ezion, property/REIT stocks have also done well so far this year. Among our stock picks, CMA has gained 7.4%, City Developments is up 5.2%, while Starhill Global REIT appreciated 5.3%.

The local corporate result season is likely to commence from the later part of Jan and together with the long break during the Chinese New Year period (shortened trading week in mid Feb), we expect some cautiousness to set in during this period. In addition, we do not expect 4Q results to exceed street expectations.

While most of the stocks in our stock pick 2013 list have outperformed so far this year, we believe that the medium-term potential for these stocks remain unchanged and are reiterating our BUY ratings for these 12 stocks. From the table, we estimate average potential upside of about 12.8% from last Friday’s closing prices to our fair value estimates.