SG Morning Highlights | Singapore Key Exports Slump Eases to 13.2% in September

Singapore shares opened higher on Tuesday. The $FTSE Singapore Straits Time Index (.STI.SG)$ rose 0.79 per cent to 3,188.77 as at 9.09 am.

$SIA (C6L.SG)$: Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group reported a 24.8 per cent year-on-year increase in passenger traffic in September 2023, as demand for air travel remained robust. Its bourse filing on Monday (Oct 16) indicated that revenue passenger-km, which measures the number of passengers carried multiplied by the distance flown, rose to 11.6 billion in Sept 2023, up from 9.3 billion a year earlier. The growth in passenger traffic outpaced capacity expansion, which rose 23.7 per cent. This meant that passenger load factor (PLF) for the group’s airlines improved to 87.7 per cent, up from 87 per cent in September 2022, with SIA and Scoot posting monthly PLFs of 87.6 per cent and 88.1 per cent, respectively.

$Keppel DC Reit (AJBU.SG)$: Keppel DC Reit reported a 3.6 per cent decline in distribution per unit (DPU) for the third quarter on the back of higher finance costs and less favourable foreign exchange hedges. According to its business update filed on Monday (Oct 16), DPU for the three months ended Sep 30 fell to S$0.02492 from S$0.02585 in the year-ago period. Distributable income was also down 6.5 per cent to S$43.9 million. The distributions were weighed down by higher finance costs, which rose 56.9 per cent to S$12.8 million.

$Aztech Gbl (8AZ.SG)$: Aztech Global has posted a 15.9 per cent increase in net profit to S$73.8 million for its first nine months ended Sep 30, 2023, up from S$63.7 million in the corresponding period of the year before. Earnings per share stood at 9.56 Singapore cents for the nine-month period, up from 8.25 Singapore cents from 9M 2022.

$Tuan Sing (T24.SG)$: Property developer Tuan Sing Holdings plans to turn its headquarters at The Oxley into a hotel or serviced residence, in a bold move into the hospitality sector in Singapore. It is also considering turning its key asset Link@896 in Bukit Timah and the freehold site next to it into a hotel or serviced residence.