My stocks portfolio - Nov 2008

My overall portfolio was down by 63.07% at the end of November 2008. I did not manage to buy bluechip stocks through Phillip Share Builders Plan (PSBP) as my giro was not approved in time for the month of November. Therefore I have used up the free cash to buy some other stocks.

There were 4 transactions for the month of November 2008.
Bought Parkway Life, price at $0.781
Bought Tai Sin, average price at $0.363
Bought Courage Marine, average price at $0.312
Bought Tat Hong, average price at $0.784

I did manage to utilize 4 out of 8 trades with CIMB $1 commission promotion into buying some of my existing stocks in small amount of cash. I plan to utilize the remaining virtually free trades from CIMB before the end of this year.

Another sector that is lacking in my portfolio was the healthcare and medical sector. Finally I bought into Parkway Life. I decided to choose Parkway Life instead of Raffles Medical as I find the former having a more diversified portfolio of assets and stable income compared to the latter. Also Parkway Life offers an attractive and higher dividend yield compared to Raffles Medical.

I am sure everyone is aware of the fast growing aging population in Japan. The speed of aging of Japan's population is much faster than in advanced Western European countries or the U.S.A according to statistics. By 2050, it is projected that their population pyramid will appear as in the following figure:



Parkway Life has tapped into the nursing homes in Japan to take advantage of the situation there. It is also a perfect choice for me to pick up this stock as I dont have much exposure in Japanese equities. I have never liked the region before but I see potential arising out of the need to grow more nursing homes in Japan.

I had very negative impacts on all of my REITS that I purchased some time back. Most of them were sold down on concerns of financing related issues due to global credit crunch. Since Parkway Life has quite a low gearing ratio and more defensive portfolio compared to the others, I am confident that it will not share the same fate like the others. Attached is a latest table of comparison among S-REITS for your reference:



Tai Sin Electric is one of the few stocks that I bought since last year but at quite a high price. I have decided to average down into this low profile and dividend play stock. From the latest financial statement, Tai Sin Electric has a reasonable amount of short term debt that can be easily repaid from its current asset. After settling this debt, they are almost free of debt and I am sure they will survive the crisis like they did in the past. Furthermore if you look at its track record of past dividends payout, they have never failed to reward shareholders since 1998.

For the second time, I have averaged down into Courage Marine with small amount of cash. This stock is sensitive to Baltic Dry Index (BDI). Thus now it is less fancied by investors and traders as BDI is currently 90% lower than previous high. How low can it go? But one thing for sure is that it will not stay low forever. There must be a turning point sooner or later. The lower it falls, the higher is the likelihood of a turnaround. Therefore I wish to accumulate Courage Marine in anticipation of a recovery in the global economy.

I bought into Tat Hong to average down for the first time. The management move to transform Tat Hong into a rental company is a prudent step taken in my view. At times of uncertainties, companies are more willing to rent than to buy. If you check the insider trades, you will be overwhelmed by the amount of share buybacks and the number of shares purchased by major shareholders or directors in increasing their stakes in the company. It is either these people are insane to buy or Mr Market is insane to offer such a low price.

Finally if you look at my holdings, only Parkway Life appears to be in positive territory compared to the others. Is that going to be a turnaround for my stocks portfolio? I think only time will tell and I shall be patient to wait.

I received total dividends of $508.88 for the month of November 2008.

No	Stock	Mode	Unrealised P/L (SGD)
1	ARA	CASH	-61.42%
2	CAPITACOMM	CASH	-64.89%
3	CHINA HONGXING	CASH	-67.52%
4	CHINA MILK	CASH	-51.61%
5	COSCOCORP	CASH	-78.96%
6	COURAGE MAR	CASH	-63.14%
7	FIBRECHEM	CASH	-74.19%
8	FRASERSCOMM	CASH	-79.60%
9	FSL TRUST	CASH	-62.47%
10	GEN INT	CASH	-39.60%
11	JAYA HLDG	CASH	-84.71%
12	KS ENERGY	CASH	-74.80%
13	MACQ INT INFRA	CASH	-69.32%
14	PAC ANDES	CASH	-29.95%
15	PLIFE REIT	CASH	6.27%
16	RAFFLES EDUCATION	CASH	-47.24%
17	ROTARY ENGRG LTD	CASH	-83.86%
18	SATS	CASH	-15.88%
19	SWIBER	CASH	-79.65%
20	TAI SIN	CASH	-58.68%
21	TAT HONG	CASH	-33.67%
22	UOB-KAY HIAN	CASH	-61.11%
23	VICOM	CASH	-17.96%
24	VANGUARD EMER MRKTS	CASH	-44.19%
25	BH GLOBAL	CPF	-59.46%
26	COSCOCORP	CPF	-75.83%
27	SIAENGG	CPF	-60.40%