Singapore has its first Presidential Election in 12 years and the ruling party's chosen candidate Tharman Shanmugaratnam has won with an overwhelming 70.4% share of the vote. Our First Lady would be Jane Yumiko Ittogi, a lawyer of mixed descent whose father was Japanese but she grew up speaking Teochew in Singapore. Tharman would be Singapore's first elected non-Chinese President by the people.
As the saying goes, the stock market is a voting machine in the short run but a weighing machine in the long run. We do not vote rationally and most market participants do not buy stocks rationally. Hence we see bubbles and crashes all the time and stocks can trade at 50x PER and people buy them knowing they are getting 2% earnings yield ignoring the fact that they can buy T bills and earn 3+% risk free.
However, in the long run, the dues will always come. The stock market is a weighing machine and weighing machine never lies. Mr Tharman's track record as a formidable politician provided him the win today but will be judged again during his term as President. Hopefully he can propel Singapore to ascend further in the global arena and more of our stocks can trade at higher valuations, validating what he said about Singaporeans enjoying the Singapore premium.
Huat Ah!
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