SG Morning Highlights | Singapore exports slide worsens in January, more-than-expected 25% fall is fourth straight month of decline

Advancers / Decliners is 40 to 67, with 31.35 million securities worth S$49.20 million changing hands.

Singapore's non-oil domestic exports (NODX) contracted for the fourth consecutive month in January, bogged down by declines in both electronics and non-electronics, data from Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) showed on Friday (Feb 17).

The month's NODX tumbled 25 per cent from a high year-ago base, deepening from December 2022's 20.6 per cent decline on the year. NODX in January 2022, at S$17.7 billion, was higher than the monthly average level for the year.

But the performance was also worse than expected, outstripping the median 21.9 per cent decline forecast by economists in a Bloomberg poll.

Singapore is now in discussion with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) on a digital economy agreement.

This was announced over video conference on Thursday (Feb 16) by Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations S Iswaran; Liechtenstein's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Education and Sport and the EFTA council chair Dominique Hasler; Swiss Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin; Geneva's ambassadors and permanent representatives to Iceland and Norway, Einar Gunnarsson and Petter Olberg, respectively.

The agreement will serve as a framework for digital trade and partnership between Singapore and EFTA states such as Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland. It will also allow the five countries to strengthen end-to-end digital trade, enable cross-border data flows, as well as facilitate a secure digital environment.

Singapore fintech funding hit a three-year high in 2022, even as lower valuations, turbulence in cryptocurrencies and uncertain economic conditions dented global fintech investments.

Total deal value rose 22 per cent to US$4.1 billion in 2022 across 250 deals in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), private equity and venture capital, compared with US$3.4 billion in 2021, KPMG said in its Pulse of Fintech report.

This was also the second-highest investment achieved by the Republic over the decade, bucking a global trend of falling fintech investments. Crypto and blockchain, payments and wealth tech were among the top areas for funding.

At a fully virtual extraordinary general meeting (EGM), over 95 per cent of shares voted were in favour of the merger.

Each unit was priced at S$0.33 apiece with 454,545,000 new units issued. This represents an approximately 5.8 per cent discount to the volume-weighted average price (VWAP) of S$0.3502 for all trades on the Singapore Exchange on Wednesday, before the manager called for a trading halt on Thursday.

Trading of the private placement units is expected to start at the opening bell on Feb 27.

This includes a higher retained distributable income of S$3.9 million to fund transaction costs of refinancing. The amount represents a 21.2 per cent year-on-year increase from the previous year’s retained distributable income of S$2.2 million.

The Q4 distribution will be paid out to unitholders on Mar 28.

OKP was awarded the 36-month contract on Feb 6, and expects it will be completed by the first quarter of 2026, the company said in a bourse filing on Thursday (Feb 16).

Under the contract, its wholly-owned subsidiary Eng Lam Contractors will be involved in the survey, construction and reconstruction of roads, kerbs, footpaths, cycling paths and other road and commuter-related facilities along the south-east sector.