SG Morning Highlights: Singapore banks beat earnings estimates in Q3 as rate hikes boost margins

Advancers / Decliners is 61 to 23, with 20.94 million securities worth S$47.02 million changing hands.

Delegations from about 190 countries will kick off a fresh round of climate negotiations on Monday (Nov 7) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, amid questions about the extent to which governments will continue the positive momentum from previous meetings.

The 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will see renewed calls for developed countries to make good on their promise, made in 2009, to deliver US$100 billion annually to developing nations — a commitment that everybody knows is unlikely to be met. Negotiations around setting a new collective quantified goal by 2024, from the current floor of US$100 billion, will also begin.

A big focus this year, with COP27 dubbed as an African COP, will be the establishment of a loss and damage finance facility, funded by richer countries, for developing countries that often suffer the brunt of the destructive effects of climate change but contribute the least to global emissions.

Singapore is "entering a more dangerous world" with tougher economic conditions and "a new Cold War", Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Sunday (Nov 6) at the party conference of the People's Action Party (PAP).

"We are on the cusp of a new era in history," said Wong, a member of the PAP's Central Executive Committee (CEC). In his speech to party activists, he laid out the challenges that Singapore faces and the importance of building solidarity through exercises such as Forward Singapore.

The last three decades have featured low inflation and low interest rates, but the world is now entering "a sustained period of higher prices", he noted. Similarly, the last three decades have seen a globalised world with free flows of trade and investments, but "all that is set to shift, if not reverse".

Malaysia's economic growth will provide the central bank with more room to tighten monetary policy as the Federal Reserve increases interest rates, caretaker Finance Minister Zafrul Aziz said.

Gross domestic product (GDP) data to be released this week will show the economy was stronger than expected in the third quarter, he said in an interview on Saturday (Nov 5).

Bank Negara Malaysia increased its benchmark interest rate for a fourth straight meeting last week. At 2.75 per cent, the rate remains below pre-Covid level of 3 per cent, Zafrul said while on a campaign trail in his constituency of Kuala Selangor for the Nov 19 general election.

The national Digital for Life (DFL) movement will get a S$1 million boost to drive digital literacy within the community. The amount is contributed by DBS Foundation, and is inclusive of the Singapore government's dollar-for-dollar matching.

The sum will go towards the DFL fund, which provides grants to individuals and non-profit organisations for community-based digital inclusion projects and activities.

Other efforts include refreshing and co-developing the digital literacy curriculum with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), as well as utilising new communication channels and partner platforms to "accelerate digital adoption", the bank said on Friday (Nov 4).

The requisition letter states that Ng has a 10.1920 per cent stake in the Catalist-listed company, Metech said in a regulatory filing with the Singapore Exchange on Sunday night.

Ng is seeking the removal of the CEO from the date of the EGM. In the requisition letter, Ng also asked the company if it would issue the notice of EGM with, among other things, the date, time and venue of the intended EGM as required as required by the Companies Act and/or the company's constitution, by no later than Nov 25, 2022.

Overall, institutions were net buyers of Singapore stocks for the five sessions ending Nov 3, with S$290 million of net inflows. This brought the 2022 year-to-Nov-3 net institutional inflows to just over S$750 million.