Market Snapshot
Singapore stocks opened higher on Tuesday. STI rose 1.52%; ProNex, SATS, Keppel, CityDev, DBS up around 2%; OCBC Bank, Genting Sing, SIA up over 1%.
Stocks in Focus
Great Eastern: The insurer has appointed Andrew Khoo, a director on the board of its parent company OCBC, as chairman of its board with effect from Apr 15, according to a bourse filing on Monday. Dr Khoo, 62, who has also been on Great Eastern’s board since Sep 8, 2025, succeeds $Great Eastern(G07.SI)$’s current chairman Soon Tit Koon. Great Eastern shares closed Monday 1.1 per cent or S$0.18 lower at S$15.73, before the news.
Suntec Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit): Property tycoon Gordon Tang’s Acrophyte Asset Management has received approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore to acquire ESR Trust Management (Suntec), the manager of Suntec Reit. Acrophyte, a vehicle controlled by Tang, had signed a S$190 million deal to acquire 100 per cent of the trust from ESR Asset Management, the Singapore Exchange announced on Dec 16. Units of Suntec Reit ended 2.2 per cent or S$0.03 lower at S$1.33, before the news.
Intraco: A major supplier of a subsidiary of the trading and supply chain solutions company has declared force majeure, on the back of the ongoing Middle East conflict, said the group on Monday. The supplier accounted for about 18 per cent of the subsidiary’s total purchases in the financial year ended Dec 31, 2025. Shares of Intraco closed flat at S$0.38 on Monday, before the news.
SG Local News
Singapore’s Q2 Hiring Sentiment Brightens; 45% of Firms Expect to Raise Headcounts: Survey
Hiring sentiment across employers in Singapore rose for the second quarter of 2026, after two consecutive quarters of declines, according to the latest ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey released on Tuesday (Mar 10).
For the quarter, some employers in the city-state recorded improved hiring sentiment, which is quantified using the metric of net employment outlook, or the difference between the percentage of employers planning to raise headcounts and those planning reductions. This was according to the survey of over 530 employers in Singapore.
The seasonally adjusted net employment outlook for Q2 stood at 24 per cent, an improvement of 10 points from the previous quarter and a decline of three points from the year-ago period, as employers forecast staffing changes amid anticipated hiring increases driven by company expansion.
Singapore, Regional Petrochem Sector Could See More Force Majeure Notices; EDB in Contact with Players
The escalating conflict in the Middle East has cast a pall on Singapore’s petrochemical sector, with two key players declaring force majeure in the past week and some analysts expecting that more could follow.
“It is looking very grim for Singapore’s petrochemical sector and the broader economy as the oil supply chain is fractured,” said June Goh, senior oil market analyst at Sparta Commodities.
Oil prices on Monday (Mar 9) surpassed US$100 a barrel, with the shipping halt in the Strait of Hormuz and continued attacks on the Middle East’s energy infrastructure.
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