InvestIdeas

Now on my watchlist.

As of yesterday, OCBC has went below its 100day Moving Average.

Let's see how low it can go.

Just from memory, I think OCBC has been actively traded. It appears regularly on Top Volume (I think)

Any FA guys care to share whether which is a better buy among the 3 local banks?

Thanks

Always got revision... no body knows how far and deep the rabbit hole goes..

OCBC revises Great Eastern's exposure to Fannie and Freddie
By Victoria Jen, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 17 July 2008 2242 hrs

SINGAPORE: OCBC has revised Great Eastern Holdings' exposure to the two troubled US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Great Eastern is OCBC's insurance unit.

OCBC said in a statement on Thursday that Great Eastern's exposure amounts to S$69 million, up from the S$29 million announced earlier.

According to the lender, the revised figure is still immaterial in relation to the total insurance fund of S$42 billion.

The amendment came two days after OCBC first issued a statement, detailing its investment portfolios linked to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

DBS and UOB also made similar statements on the same day to ease concerns over the fallout from the problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

- CNA/ir

Not vested.

RESEARCH ALERT-Citi cuts OCBC to sell, target price S$8.35

SINGAPORE, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Citigroup cut its investment rating on Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp to "sell" from "buy" and lowered its target price to S$8.35 from S$9.30, following the Singapore lender's poorer-than-expected results.

"While core bank operations remain strong, we fear investor aversion until the markets volatility impact to earnings subsides," said Citigroup analysts Robert Kong and Ivan K Lim in a research note.

OCBC on Thursday said second quarter net profit fell 20 percent due to weaker earnings at its insurance arm.

Source: Reuters

Heavy selling in juz half an hour. Selling vol of banks are in this ascending order : OCBC, UOB and DBS. IMHO, this signals institutional selling. Don't be roti prata.

The Singapore banks were holiding pretty well until yesterday. They were the last strongholds in the STI index. Some articles has said that the financial sectors are usually the last ones to tank in a bear market. Hope this is what we had witnessed yesterday? Has this pattern occur during the Feb,2008 period where DBS n UOB go down SGD16+!

Hi KimHuat
I think that was in March rather than Feb. Then it was the Bear Sterns crisis with its bundle of unknown CDOs etc.

On 11 Sep, OCBC bought Great Eastern Life Insurance.
On 12 Sep, one mysterious lot only transacted at +$940 above 11's closing price. Yesterday, OCBC bought GE again. Something's brewing here - either plan to take GE pte or OCBC knows something abt AIG b4 it hit the news. In other words, is OCBC shoring up GE. Maybe it's juz.....

RESEARCH ALERT-UBS cuts OCBC target, keeps neutral rating

SINGAPORE, Sept 26 (Reuters) - UBS on Friday kept its neutral rating on Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp but cut the price target to S$8.00 from S$9.20, citing expected writedowns at insurance subsidiary Great Eastern and higher provisions.

"While we remain confident about its core banking earnings, we think mark-to-market write-downs associated with insurance subsidiary Great Eastern may continue because of the existing volatility in the capital markets," UBS analyst Jaj Singh wrote in a report.

"We also think this environment may make it harder for OCBC to continue with write-backs, which, in the past few years, has led to low level of provisioning," he added.

UBS said it has lowered its 2008 and 2009 earnings estimate for OCBC by 2.5 percent and 3 percent, respectively.

Source: Reuters

American banks are consolidating and there is much less scope for smaller banks. This crisis has been 'fortunate' in having taken place after the bank mergers in our local landscape (of course, it was 'forced' upon us by the US-Singapore FTA). The future operating environment will be more difficult for OCBC than DBS or UOB. But it's got a great management team.

OCBC (BUY\S$7.16\Target S$9.60)

29 Sep 2008