Two decades ago, while at Standard Chartered Bank, our flagship corporate social responsibility programme was “The Greatest Race on Earth,” which included marathons in Singapore, Hong Kong, Mumbai and Nairobi.
Some colleagues even took leave to run all four legs in a year.
When we acquired Union Bank in Pakistan in 2006, our new colleagues proposed adding a fifth leg in Karachi.
However, given the security risks we faced there, the proposal was not approved.
What began in 2003 as an employee-driven fundraiser for sight restoration surgeries evolved into the Seeing Is Believing global initiative, which raised over US$100 million ($130 million) over nearly 20 years.
Since then, it has reached over 250 million people in low-income countries, providing affordable eye care and preventing blindness.
See also: Time for a pit stop
In Singapore, seeing visually impaired Kenyan runners outpace many serves as a testament to overcoming odds.
Small projects and companies that persist despite challenges can yield remarkable returns for investors and society.
Last weekend, I also attended the Eye Ball Gala 2024, where guests dressed in “Oriental Opulence” and raised $2 million for VisionSave, the philanthropic arm of the Singapore National Eye Centre, supporting needy patients and ophthalmology research.
See also: The world needs bigger and better financial firefighters
In Chew On This (Issue 140, June 30), I also shared about my delight to have contributed to Acres in winning the Silent Auction for home- grown mural artist Yip Yew Chong’s Grumpy Cat Drinking Kopi using my electronic trading skills from time as a dealer firing orders just as the market closed.
This time, I lucked out in an open outcry live auction for the sequel Grumpy Cat Finally Smiles! with his pair of glasses.
It is a fitting metaphor for navigating market data as we head into the 3Q2024 close and consider October and the coming November US elections.
Wonderwall
Fans of Britpop will remember the UK band Oasis, known for the feuding Gallagher brothers, Noel and Liam.
After splitting in 2009, they have since announced a reunion.
Tickets for their comeback tour went on sale on Aug 31 and quickly caused booking sites like Ticketmaster to crash.
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Those wanting to buy were stuck in blank screen “order books,” queuing to get into the queue to purchase tickets.
Scalpers were flogging off GBP150 ($257) tickets for up to GBP6,000.
These were scenes reminiscent of IPOs in the 1990s, where punters applied on margin for hundreds of thousands of shares hoping to get a small allocation and “stag” new issues by selling them on market open.
For remisiers from the era of my dad, who were accustomed to 1% commission levels for trading and often uninformed unbridled speculation providing heady retail volumes, it is best to Don’t Look Back In Anger.
After all, market infrastructure has arguably gone Supersonic and Little by Little, local investors have left Half the World Away.
One could drown oneself in Cigarettes and Alcohol or Some Might Say we could just Roll With It.
It is not the first time that the Society of Remisiers in Singapore has not been directly included in the various workgroups of the newly constituted Capital Markets Committee.
Their views would have been heard and included in the various policy debates.
It is in everyone’s interest to have a more vibrant and liquid local stock market.
Even with changes in the trading landscape, investors may still prefer low-cost platforms with no minimum commissions, like those for overseas markets.
Pre-funded accounts, collateralised shares and automatic margins reduce the demand for contra-risk cover services.
Suppose they Stand By Me, or rather, the Singapore Exchange S68 (SGX).
In that case, I have always believed that the well-informed remisier al- ways has the edge in finding gems of stocks and timing it in the local market over any quasi-insurance sales financial advisor, wealth manager, private banker or private banking assistant taking orders to pass on to a central dealing desk.
Those are more equipped to provide the house views and sell structured products linked to Nvidia.
The top remisiers here assist investors in identifying the strengths of blue chips, sectors and stocks, including how to handle smaller, illiquid stocks.
These stocks can yield significant returns, as seen with Venture Corp’s growth since its 1990s Sasdaq debut.
They also help uncover undervalued stocks with the potential for substantial gains upon privatisation announcements, much like the “Second Chance” opportunity.
True, the main committee that was first announced met with some scepticism, but a wider list of names that were further announced in the working sub-committee chaired by the managing director and ESG executive chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, should give some comfort that practitioners especially several fund managers, will be in the room.
As Chew On This has flagged, the hinge factor for our market ecosystem revival is to create not just one-off but sustainable institutional demand, not one-off supply side band-aids.
However, seeing will be believing and now the committee is being rushed to finish its work earlier than the underwhelming one-year timeline first announced.
In the meantime, SGX closed above $10.80 at the end of August — 10% higher than it was covered in this column a few weeks ago.
If we adopt a stoic British Whatever (to quote Oasis) and stop complaining, we could continue to earn decent returns in our backyard.
Do well to do good
Having left a Good To Cancel (GTC) take profit order with my remisier after buying the STI ETF with my CPF in the early August summer correction, my purchase at $3.31 was exited at $3.48 on Aug 31.
Including the dividend of 8.6 cents paid during this period and a gross of 25.6 cents or over 7% monthly return.
This is for the whole boring index in Singapore, not an individual stock, which would have more trading opportunities.
I did not even catch the bottom, which was around $3.30 or catch the top, where its August closing NTA was $3.5039.
Fortunately, I still have my dollar-averaged Nikko STI ETF holdings in my SRS so that I can enjoy the potential ride in September.
I will have to decide if I continue to wait for the committee to finish its task, which is still a while away.
In the interim, the US markets represented by the S&P500, returned from the frayed nerves a month ago.
Indeed, it tilts back towards its record highs in July before the fall.
While the brave who bought Nvidia’s fall to US$90 when the VIX spiked above 60 would have made a profit today when it recovered to US$130, shy of its US$135 double top charts that preceded its sharp fall.
It failed to hold and fell below US$120 on the way down after sterling results were unveiled.
They were not good enough for over-inflated expectations.
For the third quarter thus far, the equal-weighted S&P has out- performed (+7%) the actual market-weighted S&P (+2%), dominated by the Magnificent Seven stocks.
In the mad days of early August, the equal-weighted S&P managed to hold on to just a flat return, whilst the full S&P corrected 7%.
This change of market leadership we highlighted in April holds.
As the growth and tech sectors drag, investors’ real- location to value, profits and cash flows are evident in how the market has traded and will likely do until the US election.
The Fed cuts that are already priced in will fuel other sectors and markets, including Singapore and REITs.
Another example is our local telco, Singtel.
In May, we highlighted that at $2.35, its stock effectively gave zero value to its Singapore business, considering that its stake overseas, including red hot Airtel, among others, had the sum of its parts a much higher number.
In three months, Singtel closed on Aug 31 at $3.13.
Including a dividend of 7.9 cents, this is an over 36% three-month return for stock, about 7% of Singapore’s market capitalisation.
On that date, I attended Singtel’s Charity Golf Dinner, where a record $1.5 million was raised for the Singtel Touching Lives Fund.
This fund supports six special education schools and students with special needs in partnership with Community Chest.
The multi-year partnership has shown clear and positive results.
While management networked with their ecosystem over Golf for Good, its stock reached a four-year high.
Only by doing well can they do more good as enablers and multipliers. Seeing is believing!
