SG Market (20 Nov 13)

Although US stocks posted a mild retreat last night, the Japan’s market’s advance this morning (Nikkei, +0.45% at 8.20am) may set the pace for the rest of the Asian markets today. Investors may be heartened, following Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s comments that “a preponderance of data” would be needed to start removing stimulus. This echoes the signals last week by his nominated successor, Jane Yellen that the US quantitative easing measures could continue in the near term. Technically, the STI may trade range bound between 3,180 and 3,235 in the near term, though with a slight positive bias, as it looks to recover after a two-month consolidation. Stocks to watch: *CapitaMalls Asia: Entered into a conditional agreement with Greenland Real Estate to acquire a shopping mall under development within the Baiyun Greenland Centre integrated development in Guangzhou for Rmb2.19b. The property, targeted for phased opening from 2014, will comprise an eight-storey mall with total gfa of ~86,000sqm. CMA intends to finance the total investment cost of Rmb2.65b with cash and borrowings. *ST Engineering: Its electronics arm, ST Electronics has sold its entire 21.1% stake in Trust Hub (THub) to THub’s existing shareholder and President, Mr Wong Yaw Ming, for a cash consideration of $1.2m. The divestment is part of an ongoing review by ST Electronics to streamline its capabilities and divest minority investments that are no longer strategic to its business. Separately, the group’s land systems arm, ST Kinetics has set up an automotive and specialty vehicles subsidiary in Yangon, Myanmar, as part of its plans to grow its commercial business in the country. *BRC Asia: FYSep13 net profit more than doubled y/y to $35.7m while revenue climbed 9% to $425m, driven by increased quantities of steel sold, on the back of lower unit selling prices alongside decreased steel costs. The group continued to benefit from the buoyant construction activities, particularly in the HDB sector. NAV as at end Sep was $0.16. *Swissco: Clinched orders for three more vessels worth $35m under its fleet renewal initiative. The new vessels comprise two anchor handling tug supply vessel (AHTS) and one multipurpose utility tug, to be built at Chinese shipyards, with delivery by 2015. *Atlantic Navigation: Orders two new vessels worth a combined US$ 28.7m, to strengthen its fleet. The orders comprise a 75m platform supply vessel and a 6,400bhp AHTS, to be delivered by Mar ’14 and Mar ’15, respectively. This brings the total number of vessels owned by group to 15. *First Ship Lease Trust: Following a breach of financial covenants, credit agency, S&P has downgraded the trust’s long term corporate credit rating to “B-“ from “B”, and lowered its long-term Asean regional scale rating to "axB-" from "axB+". The ratings remain on credit watch with negative implications. *WBL: Majority shareholder, United Engineers (UEL), which owns a 96.3% stake, plans to delist WBL. UEL intends to apply for a waiver to hold an EGM, and will make a cash exit offer of $4.45 per WBL share for the remaining shares it does not own. WBL has been suspended from trading since 30 May.