SG Morning Highlights | Singapore exports slide worsens in January, more-than-expected 25% fall is fourth straight month of decline
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Good morning mooers! Here are things you need to know about today's Singapore:
●Singapore shares opened lower on Friday; STI down 0.24%
●Singapore carves digital trade deal with Europe
●Stocks to watch: Sembmarine, Keppel Corp, ESR-Logos Reit, Sasseur Reit, OKP
●Latest share buy back transactions
-moomoo News SG
Market Trend
Singapore shares opened lower on Friday. The $FTSE Singapore Straits Time Index (.STI.SG)$ lost 0.24 per cent to 3,303.33 as at 9.01am.
Advancers / Decliners is 40 to 67, with 31.35 million securities worth S$49.20 million changing hands.
Breaking News
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.
Stocks to Watch
$SembMarine R1 (56GR.SG)$ $Keppel (BN4.SG)$ : It has been nearly a year since the proposal to merge offshore and marine (O&M) giants Keppel O&M and Sembcorp Marine (Sembmarine), but the motion took a big step forward on Thursday (Feb 16) as shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of amalgamating the two into one.
At a fully virtual extraordinary general meeting (EGM), over 95 per cent of shares voted were in favour of the merger.
$ESR-LOGOS REIT (J91U.SG)$ : ESR-Logos Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit) announced on Friday (Feb 17) that its private placement was three times subscribed.
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.
$Sasseur Reit (CRPU.SG)$ : Sasseur Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit) posted a 31.5 per cent decline in its fourth quarter distribution per unit (DPU) to 1.302 Singapore cents, from 1.9 cents the previous year.
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.
$OKP (5CF.SG)$ : Infrastructure and civil engineering company OKP Holdings has secured a contract worth S$95.9 million from the Land Transport Authority (LTA) for the maintenance of roads, road-related and commuter-related facilities along the south-east sector.
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.
Latest Share Buy Back Transactions
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