SG Morning Highlights | S-Reits in STI end Q1 with 10% gains, outperform Index

Advancers / Decliners is 68 to 37, with 49.48 million securities worth S$30.94 million changing hands.

In March, the iEdge S-Reit Index declined 0.7 per cent in total returns, shaving its year-to-date (YTD) total returns to 4.3 per cent but still outperforming the Straits Times Index's (STI) 0.8 per cent YTD total returns.

Key market drivers during the quarter, which also extended into March, continue to include global interest rate hikes, decelerating growth, persistent inflation, geopolitical tensions as well as global financial stability.

Globally, the FTSE EPRA Nareit Developed Index saw steeper declines of 4.3 per cent in total returns last month and ended the first quarter of the year flat.

Singapore authorities are working with lenders in the city-state to set uniform standards on screening potential customers from the crypto and digital assets sectors, amid various global fallouts in the industry.

The central bank and police have been helping banks to fine-tune their vetting approach when opening accounts for service providers across all types of digital assets, sources said.

The project has been on for about six months, and an industry report outlining the best practices in areas like due diligence and risk management may be published in the next two months, the sources said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private.

In the first quarter of 2023, more than 40 Singapore primary-listed companies bought back shares with a total consideration of S$126 million, less than the consideration tally of S$150 million in Q4 2022 and S$298 million in Q1 2022.

During the quarter, the Straits Times Index (STI) generated a 0.2 per cent price gain, with dividends boosting the total return to 0.8 per cent.

Its increased market cap of S$8.2 billion makes it the largest counter on the Straits Times Index (STI) reserve list, which means it has a chance of being added to the benchmark index – depending on how it and other index counters trade in the coming months.

In February, Sembmarine acquired Keppel Offshore & Marine from Keppel Corp. The deal was settled through the issue of new shares that raised the total issued share capital of Sembmarine to 68.2 billion shares from 31.4 billion shares.

The reason is the delay in the divestment of two Chinese logistics assets, which in turn has held up its settlement of a mandatory repayment, EC World Asset Management disclosed in a bourse filing on Good Friday (Apr 7).

Back in October last year, EC World Reit said that it would be divesting its indirect interests in Bei Gang Logistics and Chongxian Port Logistics for 2.03 billion yuan (S$392.7 million). Part of this was to repay outstanding onshore and offshore loans. However, this has not been completed.

Raffles Education Group claimed that Prakash and Lui had devised a plan to mislead the group into believing that Educomp would agree to a buyout of its stake in a joint venture when it possessed no such intention.

The Educomp group of companies include India-listed Educomp Solutions, of which Prakash is chairman and managing director, as well as wholly-owned subsidiaries Educomp Asia Pacific and Educomp Professional Education.