Advocacy group's actions do not serve interests of small, mid-caps

AMBIGUITY and red herrings plague an advocacy group's report that paints a bleak outlook for the Singapore stock market in 2015 and suggests that companies may do better raising capital overseas.

The thesis of the report by the Small and Middle Capitalisation Companies Association (SMCCA) can be summarised thus: 2015 will be a terrible year for the Singapore stock market, so if you have to raise capital or grow your company, think about doing it overseas or through non-equity means.

How did SMCCA come to that conclusion? First, SMCCA reckoned that "GDP in 2015 is thus expected to weaken" as non-oil exports and industrial production show signs of a slowdown.