News

Hyflux postpones town hall meeting with shareholders

The firm says they need a bigger venue due to a large number of shareholders wanting to attend.

Singapore suspends Boeing 737 Max flights

This will affect SilkAir, China Southern Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, Shandong Airlines and Thai Lion Air operating in Singapore.

Daily Briefing: GIC invests in US energy infrastructure Tallgrass Energy; Mixed-use development Selegie Centre sold at $120m

And Singapore-based healthcare startup Docquity bagged US$11m in a series B funding round.

SGX daily average value hit a six-month high at $1.06b in February

There were 100 new bond listings which raised $42.87b. The Singapore Exchange recorded an 8% MoM increase in its securities daily average value (SDAV) to $1.06b in February, hitting its six-month high. However, it was still down 39% compared to the figures in February 2018. The bourse’s total securities market turnover fell 12% MoM and 42% YoY to $19.1b over 18 trading days. The market turnover value of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) also crashed 52% MoM and 70% YoY to $103m. For derivatives, total volume dipped 2% MoM and rose 1% YoY to 18.2 million. SGX noted that there February saw 1 Catalist listing and 100 new bond listings which raised $42.87b. The total market capitalisation value of the 740 listed firms hit $970.84b as of end-February.

Resale condo transactions slipped 7.8% to 11,215 units in 2018

Almost half or 5,520 units were transacted in the OCR. Resale condo transactions declined 7.8% YoY to 11,215 as units sold in H2 almost halved (47%) compared to H1, Edmund Tie & Company (ETCo) noted in a report. Across respective markets, resale volumes fell by 45-50% compared to the volumes in H1 2018. ETCo noted that the Outside Central Region (OCR) accounted for almost half (49.2%) of the total transactions as 5,520 resale units were transacted in the area, followed by the Rest of the Central Region (RCR) which accounted for 30.4% or 3,412 resold units, and the Core Central Region (CCR), which accounted for 20.4% or 2,283 resale transactions. ETCo also revealed that units under $1.5m accounted for 61.8% of the total resale transactions, higher than the 61.1% they accounted for back in 2017. Meanwhile, the proportion of units priced under $1m remained relatively unchanged at 27.6%, whilst a slight increase was observed in the proportion of sold units (34.2% from 34%) priced between $1-1.5m. Moreover, the report also noted that units above $1.5-2m comprised 18.1% (from 17.5% in 2017) of the resale transactions in 2018. The proportion of units priced above $2m declined from 21.4% to 20.1% in 2018. “Although the overall Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) price index had risen by some 7.9%, a higher portion of the price increase is typically reflected in the new sales market relative to the resale market. This is not uncommon as the resale market usually consists of older housing stock which is also comparatively more affordable than new units within the same locality,” ETCo explained. For 2019, the firm believes that the resale market is set for a tight competition from the new sales market, particularly for well-priced and well-amenitised projects. “Resale volume for non-landed properties is expected to moderate with prices of older leasehold properties likely to face some downside pressure,” it added.

Daily Briefing: Singapore to build floating homes; Finance startup Silot completes US$8m series A round

And here’s why revising CPF rule could not resolve the long term issue of lease expiry.

Government aims to have 30% of food to be locally-produced

Environment and Water Resources minister aims to use new tech solutions to raise productivity of farms.

73 entities filed proofs of claims against Hyflux worth $3.51b

Unsecured facilities claims, which include claims from Mizuho and BNP Paribas, have reached $572.1m.

8 in 10 Singaporean women leave major financial decisions to spouses: report

Only 20% of Singapore women engage in investing, insurance, retirement and other long-term planning.

MAS urges financial firms to adopt independent audit programmes

It aims to raise the standards for financial institutions in developing effective business continuity plans.