SG Market (10 Mar 15)

Singapore shares are expected to open firmer, keeping tracking of the positive close in Wall Street, in a session which saw Apple launching its smartwatch and General Motors announcing US$5b worth of share buybacks.

Regional bourses are trading higher this morning in Tokyo (+0.5%), Seoul (+0.1%) and Sydney (+0.3%).

From a chart perspective, the STI is finding some support near the lower end of its 3,390-3,450 consolidation range.

Stocks to watch:
*Economy: Three-month Sibor jumped to 0.836% on Mon, up 3% from last Fri and 115% higher from the 2014 low of 0.389%.

*Keppel Land: Parent Keppel Corp has obtained 73.7% control of its property arm, still some way to go towards the 90% threshold level. Closing date for the voluntary unconditional cash offer is on Thu (12 Mar).

*SGX: Opens new office in Hong Kong, which will extend the group’s comprehensive range of Asian equity index futures and key commodity futures, covering over 80% of Asia's economies - China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Taiwan.

*Sino Grandness: In a business update, Sino Grandness revealed that its proposal to spin off its juice business, Garden Fresh, is still progressing and it will keep shareholders updated on material developments. The group has commissioned research company Euromonitor International in Jan ‘15 to conduct independent assessment of the fresh juice and loquat juice market in China.

*GSH/ Vibrant: Launches sale of more than 100 office strata units of 28-storey Grade-A office building GSH Plaza, formerly known as Equity Plaza. Units range 480-1700sqf, expected to be priced $2850-3500psf. Building has 259 office units, 8 shops and 13 F&B outlets.

*Triyards: Secured deals for two ice-class Multi-Purpose Support Vessels (MPSV) as well as a turret fabrication job worth over US$100m. The MPSVs were signed with Ocean Enegy Ventures, which will extend earnings visibility beyond FY16. The turret fabrication project was signed with London Marine Consultants.

*Yongnam: 51% owned JV secured a $159m contract for the JTC Food Hub @ Senoko. The JV will build and develop a new seven-storey ramp-up development in the Senoko Food Zone. With land area of 33,000 sqm, the new development will comprise 50 modular factory units which have the flexibility for space configuration, and features an integrated coldroom-warehouse facility.

*IPS Securex: Enters five-year Hyperspike Reseller Agreement with Undersea Sensor Systems, giving it exclusive distributorship in 13 Asia-pac countries and non-exclusive distributorship in 3 Asian countries.

*Europtronic: Entered into sales and purchase agreement to dispose eight subsidiaries with total negative net assets of ~US$1.3m for S$1.00 to a group of individual investors. The disposal is expected to be improve the overall financial position of the company.

*Yangzijiang: Clarified that while the group has been approached by relevant government agencies to explore the possibilities of taking a stake in Rongsheng, management yet to make any decision, although it will carefully evaluate the impact of any potential acquisition on the group.

*Ellipsiz: In response to SGX's trading query, Ellipsiz highlighted UOB Kay Hian's Buy report, which may have explained for the increased trading volume.

*UOB: Increases limit of EMTN programme from $10b to $15b

*Interra: Receives waiver for qualified person report on grounds of business confidentiality, and sufficient transparency and disclosure.