Sunday, October 17, 2010

Taking advantage of the falling US dollar

With SGD hitting an all-time high against the USD, I was very much interested to find out how I could turn this situation to my advantage.

After mulling over this for some time, I came up with the following list:
  • Changing some SGD for USD at the moneychanger
    I was at Suntec over the weekend and saw a long queue at the moneychanger opposite Watsons, guess some people like to keep physical cash or they are going to the US for a well-timed holiday.
  • Changing some SGD for USD and keeping it in a bank account
    I was looking at some foreign currency accounts and concluded that unless you have use of USD in your daily work or otherwise, there was not much point in opening such an account.
  • Buying into USD-denominated shares on the Singapore stock exchange
    STI component stocks denominated in USD include Jardine Matheson Holdings and Jardine Strategic Holdings. However, valuations appear to me to be on the high side right now. Besides, I was also none too familiar with these two counters.
  • Buying the upcoming American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) quoted on the Singapore stock exchange
    By chance, I came across this piece of news, saying that SGX will quote ADRs of 19 major Asian companies from 22 October 2010. Coincidentally, that was next week.
From the list, we can see some of the big companies in China right now. Personally, I am most interested in Baidu. Firstly, it has the highest 6-month daily turnover in the list, reflecting a high level of liquidity. Secondly, with the exit of Google from China, this opens up an opportunity for other search providers such as Baidu. Thirdly, the China growth story is arguably the current flavour of the times, and Baidu is well-placed to ride on this.

For now, I am content to adopt a wait-and-see attitude first but definitely, I am looking to get in on a slice of the action. Good luck to all!

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