Combined profit of 226 companies for the quarter is up 175% over the year-ago period

 

By OH BOON PING

 

SINGAPORE-LISTED companies turned in a strong fourth-quarter performance, with some reporting sharply higher profits than a year back.

 

By 5 pm yesterday, 226 companies had released their financial results for Q4 ended Dec 31, 2009. And their combined net profit was $6.9 billion - up 175.4 per cent year on year.

Of the 226 companies, 188 or 83 per cent were in the black. Eighty-five companies reported higher earnings and 61 turned their businesses around.

Lower profits were posted by 42 companies, while 12 registered losses compared with profits a year earlier.

The full-time profit score for the 303 listed firms with a December year-end is $21.47 billion. Compared with the 300 companies that reported full-year results a year back, total net income rose 2.6 per cent to $21.47 billion.

In terms of quarterly earnings, property developer CapitaLand topped the list with income of $885.73 million, up from $77.96 million a year earlier. Its revenue rose 18.4 per cent to $833 million from $703.74 million.

The developer was helped by a one-off gain as well as profits from residential developments in China, Singapore and Vietnam.

The income hike was largely due to CapitaLand's retail development unit CapitaMalls Asia, which contributed a gain of $900 million as a result of its listing.

The healthy Q4 propelled CapitaLand's full-year profit past the $1 billion mark for the fourth year in a row. At $1.05 billion though, it was 16.4 per cent lower than in 2008, mainly due to revaluation and impairment losses.

In second place was Golden Agri with fourth-quarter net income of $663.71 million, even though this was down a hefty 53.6 per cent from a year back. The plantation play was hit by a 79 per cent plunge in fair value gains to US$302.9 million from the year-ago period.

Golden Agri, whose group revenue was US$2.29 billion, also said revenue from Indonesia was US$1.68 billion in 2009, down 27.8 per cent due to the lower average crude palm oil (CPO) prices during the year.

'The average international CPO price was US$680 a tonne for 2009, approximately 28 per cent lower than the average of US$947 in 2008,' it said in a statement.

On a full-year basis, DBS Group took top spot with net income of $2 billion, up 5.8 per cent, while revenue stood at $6.6 billion.

During the year, loans by the bank's consumer banking unit expanded a record 13 per cent or $4.6 billion to $39.4 billion, thanks to rapid growth in home loans.

Compared with a year earlier, the group's net customer loans were up 3.2 per cent, compensating for narrower net interest margins, which measure the profitability of lending activities after deducting funding costs.

In general, banks outperformed the other sectors, as OCBC and UOB took the second and third positions in the full-year profit tally.

OCBC posted a 12.2 per cent rise in net income to $1.96 billion, while UOB reported a 1.8 per cent drop in earnings to $1.9 billion.

* Q4 GDP tops initial figure
* Existing homes sales sink, consumer sentiment slips
* Drop in dollar boosts exporters' stocks
* Dow up 0.04%, S&P up 0.1%, Nasdaq up 0.2%

 



On a day marked by light volume as Wall Street was buried in a snowstorm, the falling dollar also boosted the shares of exporters, who benefit from a weaker greenback.

'The dollar has declined somewhat and, in general, when the dollar has been declining, that's positive for equities,' said Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer at OakBrook Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois.

Also buoying stocks was data showing the US economy grew slightly more than initially thought in the fourth quarter.

But a surprisingly sharp drop in existing home sales in January and weak consumer sentiment in February underscored the uneven nature of the economic recovery.

'There was a lot of economic data this morning, most of it worse than expected,' Mr Jankovskis said.

Financials and industrials led the way up, with Dow component and diversified manufacturer 3M gaining 0.5 per cent to US$80.15. JP Morgan Chase & Co, another Dow component and one of the biggest US banks, rose 3.3 per cent to US$41.97.

Healthcare stocks also ranked among the day's winners, with Cigna adding 1.2 per cent to US$34.26. A seven-hour healthcare summit on Thursday did little to budge Republican lawmakers on industry reform.

The Dow Jones industrial average edged up 4.23 points, or 0.04 per cent, to end at 10,325.26. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 1.55 points, or 0.14 per cent, to 1,104.49. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 4.04 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 2,238.26.

Good month, but anaemic week
The Dow and the S&P 500 saw their best monthly gains since November, while the Nasdaq locked in its best advance since December. For February, the Dow rose 2.6 per cent, while the S&P 500 gained 2.9 per cent and the Nasdaq climbed 4.2 per cent.

Even so, all three major stock indexes were down for the week, following two weeks of gains. The Dow slipped 0.7 per cent, while the S&P 500 declined 0.4 per cent and the Nasdaq shed 0.3 per cent.

A snowstorm that began on Thursday and forced closures of schools and businesses across the Northeast kept a number of traders home, leading to light volume on Friday.

'Volumes are trading as if it's a holiday weekend. Volumes are remarkably light,' said Tim Smalls, head of US stock trading at brokerage firm Execution LLC in Greenwich, Connecticut.

In its second reading, the Commerce Department said gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 5.9 per cent, up from the 5.7 per cent annual pace estimated last month.

On the downside, American International Group Inc slid 10 per cent to US$24.77 after it reported a quarterly loss of US$8.9 billion, hurt by an increase in its loss reserves and its efforts to repay loans from the US government.

About 7.9 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, well below last year's estimated daily average of 9.65 billion.

Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a ratio of three to two, while on the Nasdaq, about seven stocks fell for every six that rose. -- REUTERS

 

NEW YORK - US stocks rose on Friday, capping their best monthly advance since November as data showed the economy grew a tad better than expected in the fourth quarter.