INVESTORS yesterday banked on Wall Street reopening with a bang after its closure on Monday for a public holiday and so pushed Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index up 2.1 per cent and the Straits Times Index up 16.96 points to 2,660.91.

It was the STI's fourth consecutive rise, during which it has gained 90 points or 3.5 per cent. Also adding to confidence to buy was a firm opening for Europe and a 95-point rise in the September futures contract on the Dow Jones Industrial Average at 5pm.

Genting Singapore continued to enjoy plenty of liquidity and interest by virtue of the emergence of a current casino theme that has prompted several brokers over the past week to issue 'buys' on the counter. JP Morgan was the latest broker to lend its name to this camp - in a Sept 7 report, it set a June 2010 price target of $1.20 for Genting based on a set of base case assumptions, or $2 if the bullish case assumptions are met.

The $1.20 was calculated using a sum-of-parts where Genting's business is valued at 14x FY12 estimated EV/Ebitda (economic value/earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation), while Genting's UK operations and its marketing and IT-related services are valued at 10x FY12 estimated EV/Ebitda. Genting yesterday added 2 cents at $1.19 with some 202 million shares traded.

Elsewhere, Chartered Semiconductor's shares rose 2 cents to $2.61 in their second day of trading after announcement of a takeover offer at $2.68 per share.

Brokers were generally in agreement that shareholders should accept the offer - OCBC Investment Research said the offer is at a 9.8 per cent premium to its fair value of $2.44 while DBS Vickers said because there is only a low chance of a counter offer materialising, shareholders should accept the $2.68 price rather than take the chance that the stock might bounce back to a full recovery price of $3.50.

Nomura Singapore in the meantime, said the offer was unfair to minorities because 1) the price was only a one per cent premium to the last traded price of $2.66 which means the buyer is not paying much of a premium for control; 2) it makes little sense to sell at the bottom of a downturn and at the start of a likely upturn; and 3) Chartered's fundamentals appear to be improving. Nomura therefore maintained a 'neutral' view on the stock.

Among the other reports of interest was JP Morgan's Sept 5 take on local banks in which it made the observation that banks appear wedged in a position of 'active inertia' where although they have the means to deliver ROE (return on equity) growth, intensifying competition, lack of inorganic growth and a transition in strategy are stumbling blocks in the near term.

'This phase of curtailed activity should be further complicated by the low interest rate/low credit demand environment,' said JPM. 'We expect limited catalysts for these stocks in the next three to six months, hence maintain an underweight rating on the sector versus the Singapore and Asia ex-financials universe.'

Equally of interest was Daiwa Securities' 'negative' call on the rig-building sector dated Sept 4.

'In our view, there is a disconnection between the rig-building industry's fundamentals and the constituent members' share prices. While we expect a recovery in drilling activity, we think that new rig orders should be fewer and be placed later than the market expects, ultimately leading to investor disappointment in 2011 earnings,' it said. Daiwa downgraded Keppel Corp from 'underperform' to 'sell' and maintained an 'underperform' for Sembcorp Industries and Sembcorp Marine.