The Singapore housing market has started attracting a fresh surge of foreign interest, after a short decrease that was caused because of the Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) charged in December of last year and the ending the Financial Investor Scheme in late April of 2012.
Recently, the Business Times published a report revealing that Malaysian investors were the biggest foreign buyers in the second quarter of 2012, contributing as much as 6.3% of foreign purchases. Other key investors comprised Indonesians (4.7%), Mainland Chinese (4.4%), and Indian nationals (3.0%).
Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ADR)(NYSE:ITUB) suffered a decline, extending both a weekly as well as a monthly fall, after cutting interest rates on loans for individual clients and companies about which no details were provided.
The stock’s price decreased in the last trading session with a previous 52-week high of $22.00. The stock was trading on below-average volume. The stock traded at a volume of 12.38 million shares at a price loss of -1.02%. The share price is now up 14.81% for the past three months. Latest closing price was 15.97% above its 50-day moving average and 16.67% above its 200-day moving average.
Banco Santander, S.A. (ADR)(NYSE:SAN) surged as Spanish stocks were among the top gainers after the government approved a set of financial reforms in order to cope with the country’s ailing banking sector. The steps included guidelines for the creation of a bank to take on unsuccessful debts from commercial banks.
While trading at volume lower than average, the stock climbed 4.76% Friday. Its previous 52-week high was $9.32 and moved down -14.87% over the same period, trading at a volume of 5.39 million. Shares have fallen -5.25% over the trailing 6 months. The stock is currently trading 15.33% above its SMA 50 and 9.31% above its SMA 200.
Barclays PLC (ADR)(NYSE:BCS) new CEO Antony Jenkins recently shared his views with the Sunday Times that the investment bank will be scaled back in the wake of tough new regulations and a stagnant economy. Over the last 12 months, a return on equity of 2.99 percent was realized due to the financial situation and earnings per share reached a value of $0.80.
Last fiscal year, $0.37 has been paid in the form of dividends to investors. Earnings are projected to move up 30.40 percent for the coming five years. The stock closed at $11.63, up 0.08 points or 0.69% from its previous close and at a distance of 0.07% from 20-day simple moving average.
Credit Suisse Group AG (ADR) (NYSE:CS) moved down -17.97% in this year and its price history showed most recently that beta was at 1.41. Over the last 12 months, the percentage change in the price was -19.21%, hitting the highest of $32.41 on Oct 27, 2011 while its lowest level in that period was $16.09 on Aug 02, 2012.