Market Snapshot

Singapore stocks opened lower on Monday. STI fell 7%; DBS fell 14%; UOB fell 13%; Yangzijiang Shipbuilding fell 12%; OCBC fell 9%; SIA fell 5%.

Stocks to Watch

SEMBCORP INDUSTRIES LTD: Sembcorp Industries is “well-positioned” to achieve its target of 25 gigawatts (GW) of gross installed renewables capacity by 2028, said the company in its FY2024 annual report released on Tuesday (Apr 1). The company’s gross renewables capacity stands at 17 GW as at February this year, “a notable increase from 12.9 GW a year ago”. The company also aims to expand its land bank from 14,000 hectares (ha) to 18,000 ha by 2028, while scaling industrial properties from 100,000 square metres (sq m) to 1.5 million sq m. The annual report separately indicated that chief executive Wong Kim Yin’s FY2024 total remuneration stood at S$6.4 million, down from S$7.9 million a year ago. Shares of Sembcorp ended Friday 3.2 per cent or S$0.21 lower at S$6.41.

TheHourGlass: The group announced on Monday plans by its wholly-owned Australian subsidiary to acquire a newly-incorporated company SPV for A$90.0 million (S$72.4 million). SPV is an Australian company whose principal activity is the retailing of watches and related products. Shares of The Hour Glass closed flat at S$1.55 on Friday before the announcement.

Wee Hur: The company announced on Friday (Apr 4) that Wee Hur Hospitality and Y Suites Australia, which manages the Purpose-Built Student Accommodation portfolio of the Group in Australia, recently experienced a cybersecurity incident involving a phishing attack on certain IT servers. Cybersecurity experts have been engaged to investigate the incident, and it has been reported to the Personal Data Protection Commission Singapore. A preliminary assessment shows no significant impact to the group’s business operations arising from the incident, the announcement said. Shares of Wee Hur ended Friday 4 per cent or S$0.02 lower at S$0.48.

SG Local News

Singapore May Bring Forward Monetary Easing Amid Growth Scare from Trump’s Tariffs

The inevitability of a global economic slowdown in the wake of US tariffs being imposed has raised expectations that Singapore’s central bank will ease its local dollar policy stance in its next meeting likely on April 14.

Most analysts now believe that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will further slow the pace of the local dollar’s trade-weighted appreciation, referred to as the Singapore dollar nominal effective exchange rate (S$Neer). This is a shift in expectations from only a few days ago, when the consensus was that MAS would stay put until July.

49 Exchange-Traded Funds on SGX Following Two Such Recent Listings

Retail investors will have more options following the listing of two exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in recent weeks to add to the 47 already on the Singapore Exchange (SGX).

The ETF that listed on April 2 allows investors to ride on the growth in emerging and developed markets in South-east Asia, as well as Taiwan, South Korea and India, but excluding Japan and China.

Investors keen to ride on China’s recovery and earn dividends at the same time can try the ETF listed on March 28.

The two new listings – the Amova MSCI All Countries Asia ex Japan ex China Index ETF and the Lion-China Merchants CSI Dividend Index ETF – bring to 49 the number of ETFs on the SGX. They have combined assets under management of about $14 billion, noted the exchange.