THE turmoil which has engulfed financial markets globally has hardly dented investor enthusiasm in Singapore’s red-hot property market.

THE turmoil which has engulfed financial markets globally has hardly dented investor enthusiasm in Singapore’s red-hot property market.

The swift recovery of property giants such as City Developments (CDL) and CapitaLand after a region-wide selloff two weeks ago suggests that the Singapore equities market has decoupled itself from the volatility on Wall Street.

Yesterday, covered warrants on property developers were among the most actively traded contracts on the Singapore Exchange.

These included a call warrant issued by Deutsche Bank on CapitaLand which closed 0.5 cent lower at 21.5 cents on a volume of 8.15 million units, and a contract issued by Macquarie Bank on CDL which ended one cent down at 14 cents, with 6.67 million units traded.

Interest in these warrants was spurred by the $1.69 billion winning bid by CDL and partners for a plum commercial site at the old Beach Road military camp.

‘This hotly-contested bid is a strong testimony of the keen interest in the property market by foreign developers and the big boys here,’ said a dealer.

Deutsche Bank vice-president Sandra Lee expects warrants on property counters to remain popular with investors. These include a Deutsche Bank call warrant on CapitaLand which requires its holder to use five warrants after paying a strike price of $7.80 for conversion into one share.



Source: The Straits Times 12 Sept 07