China Shares Lead Asian Losses

This news is from Dow Jones today.

China Shares Lead Asian Losses
Chinese stocks led losses in Asia on Monday, as upcoming manufacturing data brought China's sluggish growth into focus and comments from China's finance minister tempered investors' stimulus expectations.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.4% to 23955.49, with real estate stock leading losses ahead of tomorrow's preliminary reading on Chinese manufacturing activity for September from HSBC. August's reading was weaker-than-expected.

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SGX also fell 0.26% or 8.5 points today.

Lately, the market has been weak.  I do not have a crystal ball to foretell the future.  At present, my portfolio consists of roughly 70% stocks and 30% cash.  I am quite comfortable with this ratio.  My short-term strategy is to buy stocks that have reasonably good yield and strong fundamentals selectively.  I will maintain at least 20% cash in case the market turns very ugly.  The yield of my existing portfolio is 4.12% for the invested amount based on cost (and close to 0% for the cash I hold).  It is reasonably defensive as I still get paid 4.12% for those amount that is invested.

For stock investment, it is best for an investor to stay calm and not to over-react with the normal market movements.  One may think that the market sentiment is bad now but the mood of the market could swing very quickly.

For time being, I will not do much except to pick up stocks selectively when there is a bargain and waits for the market to swing to strength.