BCIP: Banks in a rising interest rate environment, US-China trade wars Skip to main content

BCIP: Banks in a rising interest rate environment, US-China trade wars

I started building my child's college fund when she was 6 months old. All her 红包's are channeled straight into this OCBC account, and I registered for their Blue Chip Investment Plan (BCIP). It's a monthly investment scheme into a blue chip stock of choice. Both Ms EOR and myself contribute monthly to this BCIP account, which is an excellent way to force us to invest. The rule is, do not sell anything from this account.

In a rising interest rate environment, defensive stocks and REITs are to be de-prioritized. In such an environment, the spread between interest rates and dividend yields narrows, causing selling pressure on such asset classes. Banking stocks do well in rising interest rate environments, so now is the time double down and load up.

Current sector allocation. It's time to add financials in.


DBS
The biggest and strongest bank in Singapore. They are leading the pack in digitization and building a digital bank presence. Just read their recent earnings release here.

"DBS first-quarter net profit up 26% to record SGD 1.52 billion, return on equity rises to 13%, highest in decade".

Yet their stock price still dropped about 3% over 2 days, because it missed analysts' expectations. Um ok... can't dispute the bold headline above, so it's time to load up for the remainder of 2018. With the recent ABSD announcement, I'd expect mortgage loan sales to take a hit, and also the US/China trade wars are battering the banks shares.  There should be good buying opportunities for the remainder of 2018.

The beauty of dollar cost averaging is that time is on your side. You don't have to time the market so precisely. Let time work for you.

Read the previous article on BCIP here.

I'll review this portfolio every year, unless the environment changes.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Hotel Review: Novotel Halong Bay

As I travel quite often for work, I’m going to keep a record of all the hotels I’ve stayed in, to serve as a reminder of what works and what doesn’t. It’ll make future bookings much easier. Unfortunately there was no SPG/Marriott hotel in Halong Bay area, so i ended up with Novotel. Location: Along the western side of Halong, right across some ongoing construction. Room: Decor is dark wooden, taking a spin on modern Chinese. Wood flooring and a huge king size bed that's abit hard and uncomfortable. I like the decor though. Gym: This has got to be the saddest hotel gym i've ever seen. I decided to run outside instead. Breakfast: The selection is so limited, and it's not even that good. Nice decor though. Would I return? Definitely not to this 4 star hotel. Thankfully I was only here for 1 night. Although the place is filled with Korean tourists, you can eat some basic Korean breakfast here, but that's not my preference.

Hotel Review: Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Bangkok

As I travel quite often for work, I’m going to keep a record of all the hotels I’ve stayed in, to serve as a reminder of what works and what doesn’t. It’ll make future bookings much easier. Location:  Right at the Asok BTS, across from Terminal 21 and the Westin.  I think traffic in this area is too jammed, and will likely avoid in the future. Room:   The bed is very comfortable, but the decor is quite old school.  The room feels like parts of it has been modernized, but parts of it are still the same as when the hotel was built.  The whole scheme doesn't gel. The bathroom is also dated and in need of upgrade.  Who uses small tiles like this in bathrooms nowadays?  This is so 1990s. Gym:  It has a couple ellipticals and a couple treadmills.  Not much selection of weight machines and the space is rather crammed.  The decor is seriously old school 1990s, but I think all Sheratons are like this. Breakfast:  The selectio...

Your circle of friends

I group my friends into 3 categories. Family: Those who are dearest to your heart.  They will always come first. True friends:  Those who you can always count on, no matter the distance or the time spent apart.  They will always be there for you, to lend a listening ear, to share your feelings, to guide you through life.  They may have different interests and lifestyles, but you share an unbreakable bond. Lifestyle friends: People whom you hang out with for certain type of activities, and discussions and banter will be limited to those activities.  Conversations will probably center around your common activities.  Lifestyles change, hence this group of friends will also change. When you're dead, people won't remember you.  Celebrate people's presence when they're alive.  Appreciate them and spend time with them.  There's no point in throwing a bigass funeral to commemorate a life. It's over anyway.  You should had made your ...