singapore stocks end a shade higher friday on wall street cues oil and gas gains 529582015

Gains in banks as well as Catalist board listed stocks and the oil and gas sector, and cues from Wall Street led Singapore’s Straits Times Index to a gain of 10.25 points on Friday.

Indices and sectors

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 10.25 points or 0.29 per cent higher to 3,513, taking the year-to-date performance to +4.39 per cent.

The FTSE ST Mid Cap Index gained 0.21 per cent, while the FTSE ST Small Cap Index rose 0.52 per cent.

The Singapore Exchange traded a volume of 1,875.9 million shares valued at SG$1313.3 million. Gainers outnumbered losers by 270/182.

Amongst the FTSE ST sectors, the biggest gainers were CataList index (+1.11 per cent), oil and gas (+1.03 per cent), consumer services (+0.89 per cent) and technology (+0.84 per cent). The biggest losing sectors were healthcare (-0.95 per cent), utilities (-0.63 per cent), consumer goods (-0.47 per cent), industrials (-0.38 per cent) and basic materials (-0.23 per cent).

Stocks

Yeo Hiap Seng Ltd (SGX:Y03) said net profit during the first quarter jumped 24.6 per cent to SG$9.2 million and revenue rose 8.9 per cent to SG$121.5 million led by higher business activity in its food and beverages division, according to Straits Times. Gross profit improved by 21 per cent to SG$45.6 million driven by higher margins, better revenues and lower write-offs relating to inventory.

Q & M Dental Group (Singapore) Limited (SGX:QC7) is mulling a potential spin-off of its subsidiary, Q & M Aidite International, as a separately listed entity, according to Straits Times. The company said the spin-off and listing would help to finance the capital intensive manufacturing business of Q & M Aidite, which manufactures zirconium oxide blocks in China – used in dental computer-aided design or computer-aided (CAD/CAM) manufacturing machines in the fabrication of dental prosthesis.

Net profit during the three months ended March 31 at insurer Great Eastern Holding Limited (SGX:G07) declined by 5 per cent to SG$220.5 million compared to the prior year period, said the Straits Times. However, excluding the one-off gain in the prior year period, net profit actually rose higher by 9 per cent as the performance of the insurance business improved and higher profits were generated from investments in shareholder funds.

Otto Marine Ltd (SGX:G4F) announced Saturday that a creditor who was owed a debt of SG$1.57 million had filed an application before the Singapore High Court for winding up the company over its nonpayment. "The company is not disputing the debt," Otto Marine said in a statement. "The company is currently in negotiations with the creditor's solicitors to reach a settlement in respect of the debt."

According to a report in the Business Times, unit holders of Cambridge Industrial Trust (SGX:J91U) rejected a proposal at the AGM to let the trust manager issued new units to raise funds, a rare occurrence, and the first such incident in recent memory. According to speculation, Chinese tycoon Tong Jinquan may have withheld support to the proposal, leading to its failure.

According to the Business Times, Ascott Residence Trust (SGX:A68U), which is a Singapore-based serviced residential real estate investment trust, is scouting for accretive acquisitions at strategic and gateway cities in Europe as well as Asia-Pacific in order to boost its portfolio from its current size of SG$4.1 billion to SG$6.0 billion dollars by 2017.

Water treatment solutions provider United Envirotech Ltd (UEL) saw strong demand from institutional and private bank investors for its SG$225 million bond offer which received orders of over SG$1.8 billion, according to Business Times. Lin Yucheng, UEL's chairman and chief executive, said: "We are delighted with the overwhelming interest and support we have received for the notes offering. The strong demand underpins confidence in United Envirotech's value proposition as well as in our major shareholder, Citic Environment." The company will use the proceeds from the issue to refinance its existing borrowings, acquisitions, investments, working capital or for general corporate purposes.

Property developer and investment holding company United Industrial Corporation Ltd (SGX:U06) said that net profit attributable to equity holders during the first quarter ended March 31 jumped 39 per cent to SG$60.81 million from SG$43.66 million in the prior year period. Revenue grew 30 per cent to SG$193.15 million from SG$148.07 million. Gross profit jumped 14 per cent to SG$78.34 million from SG$68.84 million.

Economic news, currency and insight

According to a survey conducted by asset management company Legg Mason, Singapore investors are rather pessimistic about the fate of their investments, not expecting them to generate expected returns, and in retrospect, would choose to take less investment risks. Most Singaporeans also feel apprehensive about being unable to achieve independence in retirement, though they were confident that the Singapore government would meet its obligations, said a report in the Straits Times.

According to data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), the first quarter of 2015 was the sixth straight quarter during which private home prices fell. The URA said the government’s cooling measures took a toll on private home prices which declined by 1 per cent during the quarter, compared to 1.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2014, as per Straits Times. The URA also said the vacancy rate of private homes during the first quarter declined to 7.2 per cent from 7.8 per cent in the fourth quarter, as the number of vacant units fell from 24,062 to 22,346. In a sign of declining property volumes, the number of units transacted in the first quarter was 2,655, the lowest seen since a total of 1,639 transactions during the fourth quarter of 2008. Resale transactions fell to 1,250 from 1,255, while rental values of private homes slid a further 1.7 per cent from the previous quarter.

On Wall Street, the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 chalked up record high closes on Friday, propelled by strong results from tech giants Google, Amazon and Microsoft, according to Reuters. At the close the Nasdaq touched its second record high. “This chapter that the Nasdaq is writing is more suggestive that it's a market that, while still technology-weighted, is much more mature," said Steven Baffico, chief executive officer at Four Wood Capital Partners in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 21.45 points, or 0.12 percent, to 18,080.14. The S&P 500 gained 4.76 points to finish at 2117.69 and the Nasdaq Composite added 36.02 points to end at 5092.09.