Singapore shares fell this week, with the STI dropping 0.85%.

In terms of individual stocks, Prudential USD rose 33%, Cent Accom REIT rose 10%, SIA Engineering rose 6%; while Centurion fell 10%, and Food Empire, HongkongLand USD fell 7%.

Market News

Prudential plc Completes Share Buyback

Prudential plc has repurchased 290,684 of its ordinary shares from Merrill Lynch International, as part of a buyback program authorized by shareholders at the 2025 Annual General Meeting. The shares, purchased at an average price of £10.2664, will be canceled, leaving the company with 2,566,204,852 shares in issue. This transaction is expected to impact the company’s share structure and potentially influence shareholder value, aligning with regulatory requirements of the London Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Code on Share Buy-Backs.

Centurion’s REIT Spinoff Gains 9% in Singapore’s Second-Largest Listing of 2025 on Thursday

Singapore’s second-largest stock listing of the year debuted with a bang, bringing the city-state’s proceeds from first-time share sales to a six-year high.

Units of Centurion Accommodation REIT, a spinoff from worker and student housing provider Centurion Corp., rose 9.1% Thursday from their initial public offering price of S$0.88 apiece. The IPO, conducted by the real-estate investment trust’s manager Centurion Asset Management Pte., raised S$771.1 million ($599 million).

The REIT’s listing has boosted Singapore’s IPO proceeds to $1.4 billion so far this year, already exceeding 2024’s total of $34 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Food Empire Raises S$42.8 Million from Placement of 17 Million Treasury Shares

Food Empire raised around S$42.8 million in gross proceeds through the placement of 17 million treasury shares at S$2.52 apiece, the company announced on Wednesday (Sep 24).

This brings its issued share capital, excluding treasury shares, from 529.8 million to 546.8 million shares.

In addition to enhancing the trading liquidity of Food Empire shares, the placement is expected to broaden its institutional investor base, position the group to pursue growth opportunities, optimise its balance sheet and reinforce long-term investor confidence.

Alibaba Shares Jump on Plan to Boost AI Spending Beyond $53B

China’s top tech firm is spending even more than it originally planned on AI, turning up the heat on U.S. chip giants like Nvidia in the race to dominate the technology.

Alibaba Group Holdings CEO Eddie Wu reportedly said Wednesday that the Chinese company has raised its AI budget to more than the $53 billion three-year outlay it announced in February. The spending plan marks the latest push by a tech firm to invest big in AI, the technology that has fueled U.S. stock markets to hit record highs.  Nvidia said earlier this week it plans to invest up to $100 billion in ChatGPT owner OpenAI.

“We are vigorously advancing a three-year, 380 billion [yuan] AI infrastructure initiative with plans to sustain and further increase our investment according to our strategic vision in anticipation of the [artificial superintelligence] era,” Wu said at Alibaba Cloud’s annual flagship technology conference, according to CNBC.