Category: Popular Hldgs

Buy @ $0.255

Buy from Sell Q twice when there were sufficient Qty. 😀

Buy @ $0.255

Got some when I happened to see it in the Sell Q. Still a long way from my previous holding level. 😀

Buy @ $0.255

Suddenly noticed quite serious selling at this price and decided to buy some from Sell Q, to replace what I'd sold previously when i was very tight on cash.. Immediately, someone put in a huge enough Buy Q which provided price support for the rest of the day. 😀

I wonder when Shares Buy Back is coming back…. Looks like they're going to allow it to drop? My fear is a worse than expected Q2, perhaps due to write-offs from closure of Ion Prologue… But then again, stores closures seems to be part and parcel of their biz…

Buy @ $0.26

Can't resist buying back some, after selling quite a huge chunk previously during the last cd/xd time. Am betting more on support by their Shares Buy Back, rather than next quarterly results (Q2 – Oct13), expected only in 10-Dec (last year), which is seasonally their weakest. Any surprise upside will have to come from Properties or a resumption of Interim Dividend (which was suddenly cut last year). 😀

Sell @ $0.275

Sold the last of my higher priced ones, at a loss. Am using the profits realised from selling Neratel to mute this loss… not so heart breaking… 😀

With STI -50.39 @ 3034.02 and having dropped from 32xx, I have made this difficult decision to ensure I have some free cash. The idea is to sell low-beta stocks (those which have lower % fluctuations wrt STI) and perhaps switch it to high-beta ones (high % fluctutation wrt STI) during bearish market, in the hope that if and when the recovery does come along, we'd have made more than the realised lossed…. Still, have to ensure the quality of any stocks before buying, otherwise, it'd be a case of selling winners to buy losers. Tough decision… 😀

Sell @ $0.275

A hard decision to sell as I needed the cash for other stocks… 😀

Sell @ $0.28

My last $0.275 ones bought in recent times for short term trades. A few reasons for selling,

1. Free Up Cash – With many stocks -ve while Popular remains stable, this may be a good opportunity to switch and make my money work harder.
2. Blackout Period – The last Shares Buy Back was on 8-Aug. The next Quarterly results for Q1 (Jul) is expected around 10-Sep (last year's date). IIRC, the blackout period is 30-days. If I'm correct, this means no price support at 28ct (Highest Shares Buy Back price to date) till then. Current price support may be due to the 1ct dividend which xd on  9-Sep but this may not be strong enough if mkt stays fearful and buyers dry up. Let's take a bet that I can buy back at 27.5ct within the 30-days.
3. 8Raja Status – URA updates their site for Property Transaction on the 15th every month. For July, the 8Raja data looks puzzling – previously 3 sold in May, 1 in Jun ie cumulative = 4. But the Jul data shows 1 sold in Jul with cumulative = 2! Either the URA data is buggy or 3 units of 8Raja had been returned ie. Buyers decided to forgo their deposits and not proceed with the purchase….. The selling psf data is also lower for July and adds support to my hypothesis of the returned units…

Even if I'm wrong for (2) & (3), if the monies raised from selling is well deployed for other stocks investments, as per (1), it'd still be a good enough decision… Let's see, only time will tell… 😀

Sell @ $0.285, $0.28

Decided to free up some cash. Sold some in AM by jump-Q routine @ $0.285, not that many lots as it'll tip the balance to $0.28. Tried the same at 5pm closing but wasn't successful and done @ $0.28.

Recent news are their acquisition of the Borders name and the opening of a first store by year end at Jurong East. They'll also be closing down Prologue @ Ion this month. Personally, I'd been expecting that to happen as the rental is likely too high and the Prologue store is occupying too large an area ie. likely bleeding red ink…. As for Borders, I won't be placing too high hopes. It looks like a continuation of their foray into a different Bookstores (Popular is more targetted at schools ie. text books, assessment books, stationery,..) concept from Harris -> Prologue -> Borders…

My original plan was to hold till xd and wait to sell back to them (via Shares Buy-Back) at $0.28. But, need cash as some potential opportunities are knocking… 😀

Buy @ $0.275

The latest URA update shows 4 units sold for 8Raja (May – 3 ; June -1). I estimate a Revenue close to $10Mil but P/L is harder to estimate, my ball park figures is gross ~$350k / unit but note that it could also easily be a loss as the selling price psf is lower than their previous figures.

Buy @ $0.275

Still nothing on 8Raja on the URA website (updated on every 15th or next working day if fall on weekends / public holidays) on 17th. Perhaps the ERA agent was too optimistic…. The earliest we can get any confirmation would be the coming Q4 results (on 29-Jun last year), if they choose announce it. Am also hoping they'll choose to pay the Final Dividend (0.8ct last year). If not, at least a resumption of Shares Buy Back… 😀