THE SINGAPORE market was bubbling with cheer on the first day of trading, with a number of stocks chalking up breathtaking gains. The Straits Times Index climbed 1.59% to 2,688 points.

Hyflux was up 10 cents, or 8.3%, to close at $1.305.

Hyflux has been buying back its shares in the recent past as the price slumped from over $2.30 in early 2011.

Three other water-related stocks – United Envirotech, Memstar and Sound Global – rose 6.2%, 8.8% and 7 %, respectively.

Another strong gainer today was agricultural stock China Minzhong, which put on 5.5 cents, or 6.7%, to close at 87 cents.

China Minzhong has rallied from an all-time low of 66.5 cents on Dec 20 but still trades at a PE of 3 on 2012 estimated earnings.

Mayor of Putian City, Liang Jian Yong (2nd from right) gracing the opening ceremony of China Minzhong's new industrial park and accompanied by China Minzhong CEO Lin Guo Rong. Photo: Company

The company guided on Dec 27 that it sees "no slowdown in demand for vegetables so far despite European crisis and global economic uncertainty and expects the entire export order book to be higher in FY2012 compared to FY2011."

Furthermore, it announced that the processing capacity at its new industrial park is approximately 3 times the current capacity.

The juiciest news is that it expects positive contribution from the park in FY2012, alongside maiden harvests from 22,176 mu of new productive farmland.

A new market darling, Yoma Strategic, displayed yet another burst of speed, rising an amazing 23%, or 5 cents, to close at 26.5 cents.

It has gained about 200% in the last 8 weeks (since it was 8.6 cents), apparently on hopes that Myanmar’s political reforms would lead to economic gains in the future.

Yoma develops real estate; sells private residential properties; and designs, constructs and project manages real estate developments in Myanmar and the People's Republic of China.

The stock could be buoyed by speculative interest.

Yoma would put off value investors as it trades at a not-so-cheap trailing PE of more than 20X.

Value investors would have been disappointed by San Teh, which closed unchanged at 60 cents, despite the company now having 70 cents net cash, and a Net Tangible Asset of 92 cents a share following the sale of its cement business.

San Teh will pay out a 30-cent special dividend at the end of this month and will go x-dividend on Friday (Jan 6).

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