SG Market (16 Mar 16)

SG Market: Cautious trading is expected as market participants will not want to be caught on the wrong side of the FOMC meeting, with O&M names most vulnerable to a retreat in oil prices.

Regional bourses opened mixed, with Tokyo (-0.7%) and Sydney (-0.04%) down, and Seoul (+0.3%) up.

From a chart perspective, top side resistance for the STI is seen at 2,890, while bottom support at 2,770.

Stocks to watch:
*Starhill Global REIT: Extended master tenancy agreement of two Malaysian properties, Starhill Gallery and Lot 10, with YTL Corp. for a third three-year term, commencing 28 Jun ’16, which generates a total annual rent of RM84.4m, approximately 6.7% higher than the prior three-year term.

*SGX: Collaborating with the National Stock Exchange of India to launch the world’s first offshore Indian sector futures in Singapore. This includes four USD-denominated index futures, namely SGX Nifty Bank Index Futures, SGX Nifty IT Index Futures, SGX Nifty CPSE Index Futures, and SGX Nifty Midcap 50 Index Futures. Separately, SGX also plans to list contracts tracking the MSCI China Free Index, which comprises large and mid-cap Chinese companies listed outside of mainland China, subjected to regulatory approval.

*SIA: Feb passenger load factor rose 2.2ppts y/y to 78.3%, on higher passenger traffic of 8.4% against a 5.4% capacity expansion. Load factors improved across for all regions supported by promotional activities. Both SilkAir (+1.3ppt to 74%) and Tigerair (+2.7ppt to 81.6%) enjoyed better load factors, while Scoot (-2.1ppt to 86.8%) encountered slight deterioration. Overall cargo load factor fell 4.3ppt to 59% as capacity (+4.9%) expanded despite cargo traffic (-2.3%) shrunk.

*Sembcorp Industries: Increasing stake in NCC Power Projects (renamed Sembcorp Gayatri Power), which owns a 1,320MW coal-fired power plant in India, to 88% from 49% via a combination of share purchase amounting to Rs650 crores ($134m) and conversion of convertible debentures.

*IPCO: 3QFY16 earnings jumped 317% y/y to $6.1m as revenue swelled to $14.8m (+42.7%) on continued growth in semiconductor sales (+32.8%) as well as increasing gas consumption (+49.7%) in China. Bottom line was buttressed by write-back of $6.7m partially offset by FX losses of $0.4m (3QFY15: $4m gain). NAV/share at $0.02.

*Vard: Signed LOI to construct four luxury expedition cruise vessels for PONANT. The ice-class expedition cruise vessels will be delivered between the summers of 2018-19. Both are expected to enter into the contracts in 2Q16.

*Keppel T&T: Signed MOU with National Supercomputing Centre, to explore potential collaboration in areas of supercomputing and high performance computing, as well as in other technological areas.

*PSL Holdings: Acquiring 70% stake in NBN Scaffolding, a distributor and dealer of scaffolding materials and hardware, for $3.85m to complement its business in providing construction logistic services.

*Secura Group: Appointed as an authorised reseller of LogRhythm’s cyber security products in Singapore.

*GKE: Entered into a chartering contract with Sinogas Carriers for its liquefied gas carrier vessel at a gross rate of US$33,000/day for six months till mid-Sep ’16, with an option to extend for an additional six months.

*YuuZoo: Signed on 20,000 new users to its online gaming platform after successfully concluding the Electronic Sports China Cup.