It has helped 17 start-ups find buyers for their solutions.

In an interview with CNBC, the Info-communications Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA) CEO Tan Kiat How said he wants entrepreneurs to help Singapore become the world's first smart nation.

"We're looking at how innovation and ideas come together to solve real-life problems for the economy, whether it's in finance, healthcare, or logistics," said Tan.

The city-state, which has attracted hordes of tech start-ups, traditional companies and venture capital firms thanks to a robust tech eco-system and a lack of bureaucracy, is an ideal laboratory for innovation.

Read the rest of the story and the watch the interview here.
 

But don’t expect cheers in the local market today.

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 35.67 points or 1.12% higher to 3211.11 on Tuesday, taking the year-to-date performance to +11.47%, according to SGX’s daily update.

The top active stocks were DBS, which gained 2.64%, UOB, which gained 4.59%, Singtel, which declined 0.27%, OCBC Bank, which gained 1.84% and CapitaLand, with a 1.86% fall.

According to OCBC Investment Research, this came as US stocks closed higher, while attention remains on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting. Meanwhile, 7 out of 11 S&P 500 industries ended higher, led by Industrials (0.54%) while Consumer Staples (-0.55%) led the declines.

Here’s more from OCBC Investment Research:

The mild recovery on Wall Street overnight is unlikely to provide much of a boost to the local bourse this morning.

We keep the initial hurdle at 3300, ahead of 3380; on the downside, we peg the immediate support at 3180, followed by the next support at 3140.

Overall volume surged 19.8% with 2.4b units traded, and total value dipped 5.6% to S$1.5b, while average value/unit dropped 21.8% to S$0.61.

Demand for business loans accelerated to 7.2%.

Singapore bank lending saw an uptrend in March, accelerating from a 3.5% advance in the previous month to 5.8%.

Citing MAS, RHB said this is due to the stronger growth in corporate and consumer loans.

Meanwhile, loan demand from businesses accelerated to 7.2% YoY in March. This was on account of a turnaround in loans extended to the manufacturing cluster. It was aided by a pick up in financial institution, general commerce, transport, business services, and professional loans.

Consumer loans also recorded gains, up 2.2% in March. Housing & bridging loans increased at slightly faster pace, while professional & private individual loans contracted at a slower pace
 

Muted operations in Singapore led to its first revenue decline since 2004.

After its head line slumped for the first time since 2004, Raffles Medical Group is pinning its hopes to its China-based hospitals.

According to Maybank KimEng, both Shanghai and Chongqing Hospitals could lift Raffles' growth in the mid to long term.

"Management revealed more operational and start-up information for the new Chongqing hospital. The 700-bed hospital will start with 200 private beds and 100 public beds by 2018. The public beds will serve as a good training ground for doctors and enable more local patients to understand Raffles Hospital’s operating model," Maybank KimEng said.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai hospital should start with 200 private beds, shortly after Chongqing Hospital.

"We expect both hospitals to turn profitable in 2020, the second full year of operation. However, we caution that start-up costs in 2018 and initial operating losses in 2019 will drag earnings. We estimate both hospitals to incur losses of $3.4m in 2018 and $2.3m in 2019, before reporting positive earnings of $2.0m in 2020," Maybank said.

Check out the chart below:

Thanks to a steady growth trajectory in its core businesses.

UOB reported an improved bottom line for the quarter ending in March, up 5% to $807m compared to a year ago.

According to its CEO Wee Ee Cheong, the improvement was backed by a steady growth trajectory of the group's core businesses.

Net interest income grew 2.2% to $1.3b QoQ, driven by expansion in loans and margins. Meanwhile, non-interest income increased 8.8% to $819m, as buoyant market conditions drove the stronger trading and investment income.

Wee said the backdrop was conducive for wealth management and fund management fees, but overall fee income fell by 4.2% to $508m on lower loan-related and credit card fees. Total expenses were flat at $957m, with cost-to-income improving to 45.1%.

Here's more from the UOB CEO:

Balance sheet strength is still our key focus. Asset quality remained sound, with non-performing loan (NPL) ratio unchanged at 1.5%. Specific allowance eased from the previous quarter, even as we made further provisions on existing NPLs in the oil and gas and shipping industries.

Combined with a release in the general allowance, total credit costs were maintained at 32 basis points. Our NPL coverage ratio stayed high at 118%, with general allowance standing at 1.1% of gross loans. While we are confident of our overall portfolio health, we are mindful of the less predictable and volatile macro backdrop and will set aside adequate buffers to ensure the continued resilience of our balance sheet.

We maintained our strong funding position and capitalisation. Our loan-to-deposit ratio was stable at 86.7%, and all-currency liquidity coverage ratio for 1Q17 averaged at 154%. Reflecting the confidence investors have in us, we successfully issued a total of S$2.2 billion in covered bonds, senior bonds and subordinated notes over 1Q17. Our capital ratios were well above regulatory requirements. As of 31 March 2017, the Group's fully-loaded Common Equity Tier 1 Capital Adequacy Ratio stood at 12.8% and leverage ratio was 7.6%.

Amid lingering global uncertainties, we will stay disciplined in pacing our growth, tapping the increasing connectivity and affluence in the region through targeted investments to build a sustainable franchise. The recently announced preliminary approval to establish a subsidiary bank in Vietnam will further strengthen our ability to participate in the growing intra-regional flows and to serve our customers' needs more comprehensively.

Don't expect any boost today.

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 9.83 points or 0.31% higher to 3173.76, taking the year-to-date performance to +10.17%.

The top active stocks were UOB, which declined 1.05%, DBS, which gained 0.57%, Singtel, which declined 0.27%, OCBC Bank, which gained 0.52% and CapitaLand, with a 1.36% advance.

According to OCBC Investment Research, this came as US stocks closed fractionally lower, retreating from intraday highs after an outline of President Donald Trump’s tax plan was seen as light on detail.

Meanwhile, seven out of eleven S&P 500 industries ended lower, with Real Estate (-0.85%) and Consumer Staples (-0.81%) leading the declines while Telecommunication Services (1.23%) led the gains.

Here's more from OCBC Investment Research:

The mild pullback on Wall Street overnight is unlikely to provide much of a boost to the local bourse this morning.

We keep the initial hurdle at 3180, ahead of 3200; on the downside, we peg the immediate support at 3140, followed by the next support at 3100.

Overall volume shrank 1.60% with 2.7b units traded, while total value climbed 11.8% to S$1.3b, and average value/unit jumped 13.7% to S$0.50.

Thanks to the 8ppt growth in load factors to Europe.

High passenger load factor caught Singapore Airlines by surprise in March after it grew to 80.1% despite the later Easter holidays.

According to UOB KayHian, the key positive was the rise in load factors to Europe, which expanded by 8 percentage points to 81.8%, the highest since 2010

Meanwhile, load factors to the Americas rose 4 percentage points while that out of South West Pacific fell by the same quantum.

"At this stage, we are unsure if the improvement in load factors to Europe and the Americas was due to capacity/seat reductions or improved demand. In any case, the strong improvement in long haul loads bodes well for profitability even if yields remain flat. For 4QFY17, SIA’s pax load factor improved 2.1ppt yoy," UOB said.

Cargo loads also improved in the said month, up 3.5 percentage points on the back of 6% rise in cargo traffic. This was led by the East Asia, Europe and Americas sectors.
 

Around 70% of its launched units are sold.

According to a report from PropertyGuru, The 843-unit Seaside Residences condominium at Siglap Link has attracted strong buyer interest for the first weekend of its launch.

Out of the 560 released units, 392 were sold as over 5,000 people flocked the project's show suite.

Read the rest of the story here.

US$ and HK$ have weakened 3.7% against S$.

Whilst DBS is expected to report a positive underlying loan growth on a sequential basis in 1Q17, foreign exchange rate may negatively affect such improvement.

According to a report from UOB KayHian, the US$, and HK$, which comprise 33.4% and 11.7% of DBS' total loans, respectively, have weakened by 3.7% against the S$.

"[This] may drag overall loan growth into the negative territory," the brokerage firm said.

This would then be compensated by NIM expansion of 6bp qoq to 1.77% due to the recent pick-up in SIBOR and SOR.
 

Gains from the segment may fall to as low as $3b.

Keppel's offshore and marine segment (O&M) was a big miss in the past quarter after reporting a mere profit of $95,000.

According to DBS Vickers Securities, this is due to the low activity level in the segment. Its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) margins plunged to as low as 0.8%, compared to a margin of 18.8% a quarter ago.

"We forecast revenues from Keppel O&M falling to the around $3-4b levels in each of FY17 and FY18, from $7-8b p.a. during FY12-14. The continued depletion of its orderbook, and deferments/cancellations could pose downside risks to our forecast" the brokerage firm noted.

Here's more from DBS Vickers Securities:

In 4Q16, Keppel provided S$313m impairment for fixed assets, stocks & WIP and investments which largely arose from the O&M segment, partially offset by fair value gain on investment property. Stripping this out, PATMI would have been better than expected at c.S$300m (vs reported S$143m).

O&M segment reported a loss of S$138m due to provisions of S$270m in the quarter. Otherwise, it would have registered a stellar EBIT margin of 18.8% and PATMI of S$130m, aided by write-back, repair jobs and cost savings.

Order wins in 2016 was rather low at S$500m. We expect Keppel to secure S$1.5bn worth of new orders this year. Orderbook (excluding S$4b Sete rigs) has dwindled to S$3.7b, from S$5.1b as at end-2015 and S$4.1b a quarter ago.
 

Expect higher manufacturing output.

Whilst the advanced estimates pointed to a 1.9% QoQ decline in GDP growth for the first quarter of the year, there are reasons to be optimistic for Singapore's economy.

According to RHB, Singapore's GDP is to grow 2.2% this year, inching up from the 2% expansion seen last year.

This will be supported by higher manufacturing output, underpinned by robust semiconductor, chemicals, and capital goods demand.

More so, the growth would likely be due to an increased growth for export-facing service providers including wholesale trade, logistics and finance. IT and communications could potentially drive growth as well.

However, despite these, construction work is set to remain muted, as businesses are still facing structural headwinds, leading to deterred investments.

"In addition, the property market would need to digest an oversupply of residential and commercial properties coming online this year," RHB said. 

But gains on Wall Street could boost local bourse.

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 11.33 points or 0.36% lower to 3173.24 on Thursday, taking the year-to-date performance to +10.15%.

The top active stocks yesterday were DBS, which gained 0.05%; CapitaLand, which declined 1.36%; Singtel, which closed unchanged; UOB, which gained 0.09%; and Hongkong Land USD, with a 0.26% fall.

According to a report from OCBC Investment Research, this came as the US stocks closed higher, with financial shares rallied following a positive reading of economic growth and the tech-heavy Nasdaq returned to finish in record territory after a month-long wait.

Meanwhile, eight out of eleven S&P 500 industries ended higher, with Financials (1.22%) leading the gains whilst Utilities (-0.68%) led the declines.

The report said these gains could lift local sentiment this morning.

Here's more from OCBC Investment Research:

As before, we peg the initial hurdle at 3200. Above 3270, the next resistance lies at 3270. On the downside, we keep the immediate support at 3150, followed by 3100.

Overall volume shrank 4.7% with 3.2b units traded, and total value slipped 19.7% to S$1.1b, whilst average value/unit lost 15.7% to S$0.35. 

Average unemployment rate sits at 3%.

The Singapore labour market might have slumped to its worst in the past year since 2009.

Citing the latest figures from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), Citi Research said headline, resident, and citizen unemployment rates were unchanged from the preliminary estimates at 2.2%, 3.2%, and 3.5%, respectively. Citi attributed the rise to more entrants into the labour force.

Meanwhile, long-term unemployment rose 0.8% in 2016, compared to 0.6% in the previous year. This makes up 26% of unemployed.

"Amidst rising job market slack, clear signs of substitution between locals and foreigners – upward revision to 4Q net job creation was led by services and manufacturing," said Citi, noting that job creation for the whole year slowed sharply to 16,800, down from 32,000 in 2015 and 130,100 in 2014. This is the slowest job creation recorded since 2013.

However, compared to 2015 which saw just 700 local jobs created, local job creation jumped to 11,200 in 2016, though well below the 79,200 average in 2012-2014. Foreign job creation slowed to 5,700.

"This is a sign of tightening foreign worker inflows, amidst rising redundancies to the highest since 2Q09, with white collar PMETs accounting for 75% of resident redundancies. Indeed foreigner share of redundancies inched up to 42%, from the 2013 lows of 35%, whilst the rate of re-entry into employment for redundant residents inched up for the second quarter to 51.9%," noted Citi.

Meanwhile, vacancies fell for the ninth consecutive quarter to 0.77, the lowest since the third quarter of 2009. 

As volume increased 1.2%.

HDB rents went down slightly in the past month, decreasing 0.8% from the previous month and 4.8% from a year ago.

According to SRX Property data, HDB 3 Rooms, HDB 4 Rooms, and HDB 5 Rooms decreased by 1.2%, 0.3%, and 1.3%, respectively. Only HDB Executive rents increased, by 1%. The rents for the past month were down 13.4% compared to the peak in August 2013.

In terms of rental volume, an estimated 1,477 HDB flats were rented in February, a 1.2% increase from 1,459 units rented in the previous month. However, on a yearly basis, rental volumes were down 12.4%.

Over 1,400 hotel rooms are in the 2019 pipeline.

The hotel industry is bound to open more rooms in the next two years.

According to RHB, there are 3,767 hotel rooms in the pipeline this year, with 45.5% of the rooms in the upscale and luxury segment.

Next year, the industry will open only 69 rooms so far, all of which are in the economy segment.

Meanwhile, 1,462 hotel rooms, half of which are in the economy segment, are expected to open in 2019.
 

It is also the nicest city in Asia for expats to live in.

The latest list from consulting firm Mercer ranked Singapore as the city with the best infrastructure in the world.

According to Mercer, city infrastructure plays an important role when multinationals decide where to establish locations abroad and send expats.

"Easy access to transportation, reliable electricity, and drinkable water are all important considerations when determining hardship allowances based on differences between a given assignee's home and host locations," noted Mercer.

Following Singapore on the list are two cities in Germany – Frankfurt and Munich.

On the list of the nicest city in terms of the quality of living, Singapore placed 25th worldwide but ranked the best in Asia. It was followed by four cities in Japan namely Tokyo, Kobe, Yokohama, and Osaka.  

Registered growth was at 9.4%.

The food and beverage sector reported healthy sales in January, contributing to Singapore’s overall retail sales standing.

For the said month, the F&B services index reported a 3.5% growth year-on-year, mainly due to the strong 9.4% turnover uptick in the food caterers segment.

Fastfood outlets' sales also grew, reflecting an 8.3% growth. Restaurants and other eating places also posted growths at 3.4% and 0.2%, respectively.