In the quarter, I benefitted from increasing stock prices of CSE Global (bought at average prices of $0.43) and Silverlake Axis.
Main purchases are
- CSE Global, as I think its business is turning around and getting better
- HRnet, a business that has fantastic cashflow
- MyEG (Msia stock), whose business is turning around
- George Kent (Msia stock), who has a good order book and strong moat in water meter business while it waits for Malaysia to re-start railway projects
- Matrix Concepts, a township developer with good ROE and dividend yield
- Sunpower. Miss this stock when it was at its low late last year.
Sold the following stocks
- City Dev. A small stake bought at $8.15 and sold at $8.90
- Roxy Pacifit. Cut the losses. Bought at $0.48 and sold at $0.40
- Cosco Intl Ship. Sold at close to breakeven price. While it has a lot of cash, I was spooked by its declining profitability in 2018.
- Hui Xian Reit. Sold at slight profit to reduce my allocation to Reits. The profit is not a lot in annualised terms
Reduce my position in following stocks
- Aim Amps Industrial Reit. Reduce to lower my allocation to Reits.
- China bank stocks. Reduce by a third, as its profit underperform expectations
Seems quite a lot of activity in 1Q 2019.
Key lessons noted n this quarter are:
1 The best time to buy/profit from stocks are when the business are affected by poor sentiment, politics or temporary factors.
2 For bonds, high yield are dangerous. This lesson is from Hyflux bonds and Lehmann minibond. Many people bought the bonds due to its attractive yield and good reputation. But the point is that if the business is that good and the bonds safe. why did the underwriter/professionals price the bond to offer a high yield compare to other bonds. If the bonds are priced to offer a high yield, then it most likely imply higher default risk. This was my thinking then when I encounter Hyflux bond and Lehmann minibond, and hence I did not buy any such bonds.
