SG Morning Highlights | High Inflation Chips Away Decade-High Salary Growth in 2022, With Real Wages Up Just 0.4%

Moomoo News SG wrote a column · May 30, 2023 09:14

SG Morning Highlights | High Inflation Chips Away Decade-High Salary Growth in 2022, With Real Wages Up Just 0.4%

Good morning mooers! Here are things you need to know about today's Singapore:

●Singapore shares opened flat on Tuesday; STI up 0.02%

●High inflation chips away decade-high salary growth in 2022, with real wages up just 0.4%

●Stocks to watch: Sats, SingPost, Cortina, GK Goh

●Latest share buy back transactions

-moomoo News SG

Market Trend

Singapore shares opened flat on Tuesday. The $FTSE Singapore Straits Time Index (.STI.SG)$ gained 0.02 per cent to 3,195.79 as at 9.11 am.

Advancers / Decliners is 73 to 40, with 59.85 million securities worth S$56.17 million changing hands.

Breaking News

Special and MediSave Account interest rate to increase in Q3 2023, other CPF accounts unchanged

The interest rate for the Special and MediSave Account (SMA) of Central Provident Fund (CPF) members will increase to 4.01 per cent per annum, up from 4 per cent, for the period from Jul 1 to Sep 30.

This is due to an increase in the 12-month average yield of 10-year Singapore Government Securities, which the SMA's interest rate is pegged to, said the CPF Board and the Housing Board in a joint statement on Monday (May 29).

The Government has maintained a floor interest rate of 4 per cent for the Special, Medisave, and Retirement Accounts since 2008. This is the first time the rate for the SMA has gone above 4 per cent since then.

High inflation chips away decade-high salary growth in 2022, with real wages up just 0.4%

Nominal wages grew at a decade-high rate in 2022, but high inflation meant the real rise was a marginal 0.4 per cent, a wage report by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Monday (May 29) indicated.

Including employer Central Provident Fund contributions, nominal total wages of full-time resident employees who had been with the same employer for at least a year rose by 6.5 per cent in 2022. This was the highest increase in a decade, and was much higher than 2021 levels at 3.9 per cent.

With headline inflation at 6.1 per cent in 2022, this translates to a real wage growth of just 0.4 per cent, lower than the 1.6 per cent recorded in 2021.

Stocks to Watch

$SATS (S58.SG)$: In-flight caterer and ground handler Sats on Monday (May 29) reported earnings of S$6 million for the six months ended March 2023, down 16.7 per cent year on year as expenditures exceeded revenue and inflation started to bite.

This comes despite a 57.1 per cent increase in revenue to S$953.8 million in the second half of FY2023 from S$607.3 million in H2 FY2022 – partly on the back of a recovery in aviation, said the group in a bourse filing.

New arbitration proceedings have been commenced against Singapore Post : S08 0% (SingPost) over a share purchase agreement related to Famous Holdings Pte Ltd (FHPL) and its units.

The proceedings were started by Tan Ho Sung in the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, with the notice of arbitration served on May 17, SingPost said in a Monday (May 29) bourse filing.

$SingPost (S08.SG)$: SingPost and Tan had entered a share purchase agreement in Jan 2013, for the company's purchase of all of Tan's shares in FHPL. The sale and purchase of 62.5 per cent of the shares in FHPL was completed in Feb 2013. Tan has exercised his put option for the remaining 37.5 per cent of his FHPL shares, but the sale of this portion has not been completed to date.

$Cortina (C41.SG)$: Luxury watch retailer Cortina charted an 11 per cent fall in its net profit to S$38.6 million for H2 ended Mar 31, its bottom line weighed by a one-off write-back.

The company's revenue for the half-year rose 7 per cent to S$419.7 million, thanks to a better sales mix and its strategy of introducing new brands such as Jacob & Co, Laurent Ferrier and Parmigiani, Cortina said in its earnings report on Monday (May 29).

However, the company also had a one-off write-back of stock provision, as an exchange of inventory in the prior year was not present in the latest H2 period. Cortina's operating expenses were also up 2.3 per cent to S$84.5 million, which it attributed to higher rental expenses with its new store, as well as charitable donations for its 50th anniversary.

$G K Goh (G41.SG)$: Investment holding firm GK Goh Holdings will delist on Jun 5 after a successful privatisation bid, a bourse filing on Monday (May 29) indicated.

The move comes a month after offerer Verveine received 95 per cent of valid acceptances for its bid to take the mainboard-listed company private for S$1.26 per share in cash.

Verveine is a special purpose vehicle owned by GK Goh's founder and chairman, and its managing director.

Latest Share Buy Back Transactions