SINGAPORE (March 17): Now is the time for investors to buy some Singapore stocks, according to UOB Kay Hian.

That’s because the Straits Times Index is offering the same sort of discounts to investors it offered during the Sars outbreak and the 9/11 attacks in the early 2000s, says analyst Andrew Chow.

Chow expects the benchmark index to trade in the range of 2,760-3,100 this year compared to 2876.40 now.

Buyers should look for "deep-value" stocks such as Keppel Corp, which has slumped alongside plummeting oil prices, but which have good fundamentals.

He advises investors to take defensive positions and buy shares on weakness with a bias for yield stocks including those of Singapore Real Estate Investment Trusts.

There are also potential M&A targets in the market such as Valuetronics and Innovalue that may offer big gains to investors.