Market Snapshot
Singapore stocks opened higher on Wednesday. STI rose 0.5%, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust rose 1.6%, OCBC rose 1.07%, Keppel rose 0.71%.
Stocks to Watch
Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust (MPACT): The real estate investment trust’s (Reit) distribution per unit for the fourth quarter ended March grew 1.8 per cent year on year to S$0.0229 from S$0.0225. This was driven by a strong Singapore performance and stable contributions from the Reit’s asset in Hong Kong, Festival Walk, said its manager on Wednesday. Units of MPACT closed Tuesday at S$1.34, up S$0.003 or 2.3 per cent.
CapitaLand Ascott Trust (Clas): The stapled group’s gross profit for the first quarter ended March, rose 15 per cent year on year. On Wednesday, its managers attributed this to contributions from new properties as well as an overall stronger operating performance amid sustained demand for lodging. Stapled securities of Clas ended Tuesday S$0.02 or 2.3 per cent higher at S$0.895.
Hotel Properties: The hospitality group priced S$190 million in fixed-rate senior unsecured notes due May 3, 2029, at 5.1 per cent. Net proceeds from the issuance will be used to finance working capital requirements and refinance existing borrowings, including redeeming the S$160 million 4.4 per cent perpetual securities the group issued. Shares of Hotel Properties ended unchanged at S$3.56, before the news.
OUE Reit: Its manager on Tuesday said it obtained a S$600 million unsecured sustainability-linked loan. The loan will be used for the Reit’s early refinancing of S$540 million existing secured borrowings due in 2025 and for general corporate purposes. Units of OUE Reit ended S$0.01 or 3.9 per cent higher at S$0.27, before the announcement.
CapitaLand China Trust (CCT): It posted a 7.7 per cent drop in net property income (NPI) to 313.1 million yuan (S$58.8 million) for the first quarter, from 339.1 million yuan in the same period last year. This was mainly due to lower contributions from logistics parks and the absence of a one-off property tax refund from CCT’s business parks, the manager said on Wednesday. In Singapore-dollar (SGD) terms, NPI was down 11.8 per cent year on year due to the depreciation of renminbi against the SGD. CCT’s units closed 2.2 per cent or S$0.015 higher at S$0.695 on Tuesday.
SG Local News
Singapore’s inflation eases more than expected in March
Singapore’s March headline and core inflation both eased further than economists expected, data from the Department of Statistics showed on Tuesday (Apr 23).
Headline inflation slowed to 2.7 per cent year on year (yoy), lower than the 3.4 per cent recorded in February, and below the 3.1 per cent median forecast by private-sector economists polled by Bloomberg.
This was also the lowest headline inflation rate since September 2021, when it was 2.5 per cent.
Singapore adds 343 dengue cases in a week
Singapore registered 343 new dengue cases from April 14 to 20, bringing the total number of dengue infections to 6,232 this year, according to the latest data from the National Environment Agency (NEA).
In 2023, the number of dengue cases stood at 9,949, and there were six deaths that year. The weekly reported dengue cases have remained above 300 in the city-state since the start of this year, according to the NEA. The number of dengue cases in Singapore doubled in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, with seven deaths
Rupiah slump may keep bank Indonesia rate cuts at bay until 2025
Indonesia’s central bank will likely postpone monetary easing to later this year, if not early 2025, as it waits out uncertainty around the Federal Reserve’s rate path and the continued fighting in the Middle East.
Twenty of 21 economists polled by Bloomberg expect Bank Indonesia to delay rate cuts, with most expecting an easing in the fourth quarter and a few as late as the January-March period. In other words, the central bank is more likely to stand pat on Wednesday, according to 30 of 41 analysts in a separate survey, with the remainder penciling in the possibility of a quarter-point hike in the BI-Rate to 6.25%.
More Singapore F&B businesses expanding overseas
Plans are afoot to help more Singapore food and beverage (F&B) businesses expand overseas.
Food exports have grown at a rate of more than 11 per cent each year since 2020, and they can be found in more than 120 markets worldwide, said Minister of State for Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling, citing figures from Singapore Economic Development Board’s Manufacturing Survey in 2023.