SG Morning Highlights | SGX to launch futures on Nikkei 225's climate index

Advancers / Decliners is 161 to 37, with 190.92 million securities worth S$207.20 million changing hands.

The proposed measures for digital payment token players cannot stop crypto platforms from collapsing or customer losses, said Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong on Wednesday (Nov 30).

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) released in October a consultation paper on reducing risks for retail investors dabbling in cryptocurrency. The proposed measures include segregating customers’ assets from company assets, and not allowing customers to purchase cryptocurrency with credit.

Responding to questions in Parliament on Wednesday over the collapse of cryptocurrency platform FTX, Wong said that cryptocurrency platforms can collapse due to fraud, unsustainable business models or excessive risk-taking.

The US central bank could scale back the pace of its interest rate hikes "as soon as December," Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday, while warning that the fight against inflation was far from over and key questions remain unanswered, including how high rates will ultimately need to rise and for how long.

"It makes sense to moderate the pace of our rate increases as we approach the level of restraint that will be sufficient to bring inflation down. The time for moderating the pace of rate increases may come as soon as the December meeting," Powell said in a speech to the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.

But, in remarks emphasising the work left to be done in controlling inflation, Powell said that issue was "far less significant than the questions of how much further we will need to raise rates to control inflation, and the length of time it will be necessary to hold policy at a restrictive level."

The US economy grew more than initially reported in the third quarter this year, with government data released on Wednesday (Nov 30) reflecting upward revisions to retail spending and some forms of investment.

GDP growth in the July to September period came in at 2.9 per cent, annualised, better than the 2.6 per cent figure reported in October by the Commerce Department.

It was the first expansion this year, after two quarters of negative growth that deepened fears of a recession in the world's biggest economy.

India's economy probably expanded at a slower pace last quarter as price pressures, rising interest rates and sluggish trade tempered demand in Asia's third largest economy.

Gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to have risen 6.2 per cent in the three months to September from a year ago, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists, cooling from a 13.51 per cent growth reported in the previous quarter. Still, an expansion at the 6 per cent level is faster than most of the quarterly outcome since 2019, according to compiled data.

The latest print, which captures part of the three-month long festive season counted on to boost consumption, will provide an indication of how resilient demand is in the face of elevated price gains and higher borrowing costs. The Statistics Ministry is due to release the data at 5.30 pm local time on Wednesday (Nov 30).

The Singapore Exchange (SGX) will launch futures on a climate index made up of component stocks of Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 to "address rising investor appetite for climate-related products", it said on Wednesday (Nov 30).

The Nikkei 225 Climate Change 1.5°C Target Index, created by Nikkei and US investment technology and advisory company Wilshire, complies with the index regulations of the European Union aimed at attaining the goals of the Paris climate accord. It is designed to halve the total greenhouse gas emissions of its parent Nikkei 225, by adjusting the number and weight of constituents, and also for emission levels to be further decreased by 7 per cent annually in the coming years.

In response to queries from The Business Times, an SGX spokesperson said that it is targeting to launch the climate futures in the first half of 2023.

The new project will sit on 108 hectares of land and feature township and transit-oriented developments.

Sinar Mitbana Mas, the joint venture between Sinar Mas Land and Mitbana, has named the development "Hiera", inspired by Japanese characters that mean peace and harmony.

A bourse filing on Wednesday (Nov 30) showed that Morgan Stanley now has a deemed interest of 4.6 per cent in VTAC, down from a deemed interest of over 6 per cent, with 2.5 million shares.

Morgan Stanley may, following the acquisition which was due to an "aggregation of global position", exercise the right to "rehypothecate or dispose of" the shares.