OCBC

*OCBC* MAS released Apr loans data yesterday, which grew 6.7% y/y and 1.7% q/q growth. Business loan growth was sharply slower this month with 1mth absolute change of +$85m versus vs. S$534mn in Mar. In fact, it was personal loan that shored the overall loan growth data with the bulk coming from mortgage financing and credit cards. The concern with this set of data is whether the business loan growth slowdown is an aberration or seasonality related. DBS (+1.6%) was the only bank that posted posted gains yesterday, possibly on portfolio rebalancing which also led to moves on Jardine Matheson. We would look at OCBC today, which has delivered very strong results in the past two quarters. OCBC’s loan book exposure to construction and housing is 42%, compares well with DBS (39.3%) and UOB (39.2%). OCBC has the highest loan exposure to the buoyant personal loans market at 13.9% followed by UOB at 13.1% and DBS at 7.6%