After overtaking the Japanese as the top Asian investors on Wall Street in 2009, Singapore-based punters prolonged their purchase of corporate stocks this year, until the July to September period.
According to the latest US Treasury figures, Singapore investors turned net sellers in the third quarter, dumping a net US$2.5 billion of their holdings.
The sum surpasses their net purchases in the first two quarters, with US$0.6 billion in Q1 and US$1.4 billion in Q2.
US investors seemed to have reciprocated by selling US$1.4 billion of shares traded on the SGX, up from US$0.6 billion in Q2.
Together with Taiwan and China, Singapore was one of the Asian markets where the Americans dumped their foreign share holdings in Q3. For Asia, US investors increased their acquisitions to a net US$10 billion in Q3 from a net US$7.3 billion in Q2.
China bought US$23.3 billion of Treasury bonds in Q3 after it sold US$14.8 billion in the previous quarter.
Excluding Japan, Asian stocks climbed 16.6 percent in Q3, with the Straits Times Index gaining 9 percent. On Wall Street, Singapore investors were the only Asian big-timers to have liquidated in Q3.
Overall, Asians eased net purchases to US$3.2 billion in Q3 from US$10.4 billion in the earlier quarter.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 11.4 percent in Q3, compared to the 11.4 percent loss in Q2. “The markets climbed the so-called ‘wall of worry’, as investors condoned to grapple with fears about the direction of the economy as well as political and regulatory uncertainties,” said T Rowe Price Investment Services in its quarterly report.
With the exit of Singapore, the Japanese regains its position as Asia’s largest investors in the New York Stock Exchange, picking up a net US$0.2 billion of US stocks in Q1, and US$2.8 billion and US$1.8 billion in