Daily Markets Briefing: STI up 0.1%

It underperformed other Asian indices.

According to KGI Fraser, the selling streak in Asian markets was finally broken on Wednesday, with the STI in Singapore closing positive by 2.95 points (+0.1%) at 2,790.89.

This performance, however, underperformed other Asian bourses like the Nikkei 225 (+2.7%), CSI 300 (0.8%), and the Hang Seng (+1.4%) indices.

Here's more from KGI Fraser:

The Singapore benchmark traded underwater for the bulk of the morning before turning positive in the afternoon. We also observed that the STI tends to trade stronger in the afternoons than in the mornings, lately.

Crude palm oil counters Golden Agri (+6.45%) and Wilmar (+2.0%) saw gains today along with gains in CPO prices. Noble Group (+3.8%), which fell some 10.1% on the previous day, recouped some of its losses along with Glencore’s rebound. \

We also saw notable gains in AREIT (2.6%) and SingTel (1.4%) as we suspect investors are starting to hunt for dividend stocks in a time of uncertain global growth.

Some of our picks for yield plays in the small-mid cap space include, Valuetronics (VALUE SP, BUY, TP S$0.67, Current Yield 8.6%), Memtech International (MTEC SP, BUY, TP S$0.145, Current Yield 5.1%), CDW Holding (CDW SP, HOLD, TP S$0.192, Current Yield 9.6%), and Croesus Retail Trust (CRT SP, BUY, TP S$0.875, Current Yield 9.5%), which offer very attractive and sustainable dividends.