THE past few weeks have been good for the Singapore market, and especially smaller stocks. Our small-cap portfolio climbed 7.5 per cent compared with prices on Dec 11, 2006. Its performance exceeded that of the Straits Times Index, up 3.9 per cent in the same period.

Leading the charge north in the past few trading sessions was Yongnam, a construction company tipped to benefit from the increased activities in property development in Singapore. Yongnam, with a whole host of other construction companies like CSC Holdings, BBR, Koh Brothers, Lian Beng and LC Development, rose sharply yesterday on very heavy volume. Other strong gainers in our portfolio included Sincere Watch, Midas, HG Metal and Ausgroup.

This week we have replaced First Engineering and Stamford Tyres with China Wheel, and the more speculative play United Fiber System.