Crazy Bull

Stock markets all around the world have been climbing like rockets. That includes the US, Europe, Japan, China, India, Korea, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore ... The list goes on. One wonders when the bubble will burst again (the last times it popped were in February 2007 and May 2006).

But the thing is - in most countries, the stock market's performance looks genuinely well-supported by fundamentals. It's not just investors' euphoria. Here's an example, from Singapore:

May 7, 2007
S'pore corporate gains jump 25% to $2.7b
Only four of the firms turning in first-quarter results suffer losses

By Arthur Poon

SINGAPORE'S listed companies have turned in a scorching set of first-quarter results, with total profits surging 25.2 per cent to $2.7 billion.

As rampaging bulls take the local stock market to fresh record highs with relentless repetition, these companies' bottom lines proclaim this is no market whim.

The big profit winners include banks, marine firms, property developers and trusts.

Among the 64 listed firms that had posted results up to last Friday evening, for the three months ended March 31, more than half of them, or 37, reported improved profits.

Another 17 recorded lower profits while one firm moved from red ink to black. Another five companies reported earnings similar to those posted in the previous corresponding period. Only four firms posted losses.