Consumers in HK, S'pore 'less upbeat over stock markets'

Straits Times
English
(c) 2007 Singapore Press Holdings Limited

They are more bullish over jobs and the overall economy: MasterCard survey

A NEW survey has found that Singapore consumers are highly optimistic about the economy but slightly less upbeat about the stock market.

Their counterparts in Hong Kong are also bullish about the economy, but confidence in the stock market has fallen even more sharply there.

The latest MasterCard Worldwide Index of Consumer Confidence survey found that, in the two economies, sentiment towards the stock market had dipped amid caution over wild swings in share prices.

Overall, the index was up: For Singapore, it rose to 83.6 from 83.3 six months ago; for Hong Kong, it rose to 85.9 from 84.7.

Published twice a year, the index is calculated based on percentage response figures, with zero denoting the most pessimistic view and 100 the most optimistic, while 50 would be neutral.
In terms of the stock market, sentiment in Singapore slipped slightly, to 75.4 from 76.6 a year ago. In Hong Kong, it fell more sharply, to 69.3 from 76.7 a year ago.

Five economic factors were measured in the survey: employment, the economy, regular income, the stock market and quality of life.

Conducted in October across 13 Asia-Pacific markets, including China, Indonesia and Vietnam, the survey polled more than 5,000 people in the middle- and upper-income groups.

It found that Singaporeans remained bullish about employment and the economy, but were less sanguine about regular income and the quality of life, due to rising living costs.

People were worried about the goods and services tax, higher food costs and oil prices, said CIMB-GK research head Song Seng Wun. 'If they took the survey today, the index levels might fall further. People react depending on how full or empty their pockets are.'

Vietnam continued to top the region's markets in terms of consumer sentiment. It had the most buoyant view for the six-month period ahead. Next came Hong Kong, China and Singapore.

Participants from South Korea showed the sharpest increases in optimism. The country's score increased by a whopping 15.6 points to 64.1. At the opposite end of the spectrum was Taiwan, which registered the lowest score at a very gloomy 29.7.

Dr Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, MasterCard's economic adviser, noted that while the overall outlook for consumer confidence had improved in most countries, this merely reflected current economic conditions on the ground. 'If you have bonuses doubling, do you think you'd be pessimistic?' he asked.

There could be greater uncertainty going into the year ahead if there are more fund failures, asset downgrades and bank write-offs, leading to a slowdown in consumer spending. If Asia begins to see the cancellation of export orders, this could hurt its corporate earnings, Dr Hedrick- Wong noted.

'For 2008, the critical uncertainty is therefore China, which has become an increasingly important market for exports from the rest of Asia,' he added.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I'm an accountant, I hate my job, but seriously, I wouldn’t know what else to do

I was born to be a lot of things, but being an accountant isn't one of them. In my heart of hearts I have always known this, but for some stupid subconscious reason, I have always ignored it. Why? Well...um...err...I didn’t know what else to do. How many people faced with the same predicament of deciding on a profession upon graduating used “not really knowing what to do” as their guiding compass? Blink. Ten years have passed and you’re left wondering, how did I get here? In this cubicle? Doing something I cannot stand (and I’m not even honestly good at), with people I quite frankly don’t really care about? For me that was accounting, a profession that conjures numerous clichés, such as boring, bean counting, personality not needed, number crunching etc etc. These have now evolved and have been replaced by repetition, reconciliations, long hours, fudging figures, high turnover, Enron and even more reconciliations. R-E-S-P-E-C-T But please don’t get me wrong, I have the utmost respe
Read more

Three money managers who lived through the 1987 stock-market crash warn of danger today

Image
By  Philip van Doorn Published: Oct 31, 2017 1:49 p.m. ET SHARE   ‘I would take some money off now because ... there are clear signs of deranged valuations,’ says Gabelli fund manager Lawrence Haverty Getty Images A trader on the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 19, 1987 — Black Monday. When the stock market crashed on Oct. 19, 1987, investors panicked. It was an unfamiliar event — the previous decline of a similar magnitude occurred 58 years earlier, in 1929. Now, 30 years after Black Monday in 1987, there are professional investors still at work who lived through that fateful day. In interviews, three of them talked about their experiences, offered insights into warning signs and gave advice on how to handle major downturns. They are: •  Lewis Altfest , president of Altfest Personal Wealth Management, which manages about $1.3 billion for private clients. Altfest founded the firm in 1983 after working as a general partner and director of research at Lord, Abbett & Co. • 
Read more

Have We Reached a Top?

By James Kostohryz It's never been my position that the flow of fundamental news would turn from positive to negative overnight and in a total fashion. The world simply doesn't work that way. When I terminated my core long position a couple of weeks ago for reasons explained in�Ten Reasons the Countertrend Rally May Be Over,�I outlined a series of factors I believe may manifest in the later half of 2009 and the first half of 2010. Indeed, most of these factors will be more back-end loaded, as negative factors tend to build on one another and gain momentum in time through the medium of psychology and social mood. It's my view that the flow of economically relevant events�-- and perceptions of these events --are in the early stages of a transition. In this case, a transition means the flow of relatively good news will tend to wane somewhat while there's an uptick in relatively bad news. This is what one would expect at a top. However, it's to be expected that during t
Read more