Singapore's retail sales increased by 4.5% year-on-year in October, marking an acceleration from the previous month, as most sectors reported higher sales, according to data released on Friday (Dec 5). September's retail sales growth was revised downward to 2.7% year-on-year. Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales rose 3.7% in October, up from September's revised growth of 1.8%. On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, retail sales climbed 2.3% in October, rebounding from a 1.7% decline in the prior month. Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales expanded 2.9% month-on-month, compared with a 2.6% contraction in September. Retail Sales Growth Highlights Year-on-year: 4.5% Year-on-year (ex-motor vehicles): 3.7% Month-on-month (seasonally adjusted): 2.3% Month-on-month (seasonally adjuste

Following the December quarterly review, CapitaLand Ascott Trust and Sheng Siong Group have replaced Olam Group and Yangzijiang Financial Holding on the Straits Times Index (STI) reserve list. No changes were made to the constituents of the STI itself. The updated STI reserve list now includes CapitaLand Ascott Trust, Keppel REIT, NetLink NBN Trust, Sheng Siong Group, and Suntec REIT. These adjustments will take effect at market open on December 22, with the next review scheduled for March 2026. $(HMN.SI)$ $(OV8.SI)$ $(STI.SI)$

AI Singapore has launched a new large language model (LLM), Qwen-SEA-LION-v4, with support from Alibaba Cloud, to better support the linguistic, cultural and commercial needs of Southeast Asia. The model is designed to run even on a consumer laptop with 32GB of RAM, while delivering stronger multilingual accuracy and cultural contextual understanding.The foundation model, Alibaba’s Qwen3-32B, was trained on over 100 billion words and phrases from Southeast Asian languages, sourced from a dataset covering 119 languages and dialects. This enables the system to better interpret local expressions, conversational nuances, and cultural references often overlooked by global AI models.Additionally, the Qwen team incorporated more translation and cross-lingual training tasks during post-training, i

Singapore's largest bank has withdrawn its application to negotiate the purchase of up to 49% of Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd., submitting a revised proposal for a 30% stake instead, according to sources familiar with the matter.DBS Group Holdings Ltd. modified its bid after failing to secure approval from Malaysia's central bank for its initial request, which would have necessitated a regulatory waiver. Under Malaysian rules, acquisitions of financial institutions are typically capped at 30% ownership.The adjusted proposal is expected to face fewer regulatory hurdles with Bank Negara Malaysia, the sources added, speaking anonymously due to the confidential nature of the discussions.If approved, the revised terms would enable DBS to negotiate with Alliance's majority shareholder, Vertical Th

Yangzijiang Maritime Development has entered into contracts to sell four new medium-range tankers (49,800 DWT) for a total of US$180 million. The agreements, made with a Marshall Islands-based shipowner, align with the company's strategy to optimize its maritime investment portfolio and unlock value. The tankers are currently under construction at a Chinese shipyard, with deliveries expected between 2026 and 2027. Additionally, Yangzijiang Maritime has signed letters of intent (LOIs) for joint ventures to construct eight new vessels, including four medium-range tankers (49,800 DWT) and four bulk carriers (40,000 DWT). The tankers were contracted with a European shipowner, while the bulk carriers were secured with a Singapore-based counterpart. These vessels will be built at two Chinese shi