Daily Morning Note – 23 March 2022
Singapore shares declined as regional indices climbed on Tuesday (Mar 22). The Straits Times Index (STI) ended Tuesday down 0.2 per cent or 5.34 points at 3,350.17. Across the broader market, 1.56 billion securities worth S$1.35 billion were traded as advancers beat decliners 264 to 180. Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed up 3.2 per cent, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed up 1.5 per cent, South Korea’s Kospi closed up 0.9 per cent and the Jakarta Composite index closed up 0.7 per cent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index bucked the regional trend to close down 0.1 per cent.
Wall Street’s main indexes opened higher on Tuesday, as bank shares gained on growing bets of aggressive interest rate increases by the Federal Reserve and sportswear maker Nike rose after upbeat quarterly results. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 30.25 points or 0.09 per cent at the open to 34,583.24. The S&P 500 opened higher by 7.92 points or 0.18 per cent at 4,469.10, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 27.97 points or 0.20 per cent to 13,866.43 at the opening bell.
SG
Shareholders of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) have voted in favour of the takeover offer from consortium Cuscaden Peak. At a virtual scheme meeting on Tuesday (Mar 22), about 89.2 per cent of 2,728 shareholders, gave the green light for the takeover. The total shares represented by all the votes received account for about 31.4 per cent of SPH’s share capital of 1.62 billion shares. The consortium offered each SPH shareholder the option of an all-cash offer of S$2.36, or S$2.40 per share comprising S$1.602 cash and 0.782 of an SPH Reit unit through a distribution-in-specie by SPH.
The manager of Lendlease Global Commercial Reit (Lendlease Reit) is proposing to raise at least S$573.8 million to partly finance the real estate investment trust’s (Reit) acquisition of the remaining interest in jem mall. The fundraising exercise comprises a private placement of at least 448.3 million new units, subject to an upsize option, and a non-renounceable preferential offering of around 345.6 million new units, the manager said in a bourse filing on Tuesday (Mar 22). The private placement’s issue price will be between S$0.725 and S$0.74. The upsize portion will be for 103.4 million additional units to raise additional gross proceeds of up to S$75 million. The issue price range for the private placement represents a discount of between 7.1 per cent and 9 per cent to the Reit’s volume-weighted average price (VWAP) of S$0.7964 per unit on Mar 21 – the last market day before the underwriting agreement was signed.
Nuclear energy may not be completely off the table as Singapore charts its path to decarbonise the power sector to net-zero emissions by 2050. A report commissioned by the Energy Market Authority (EMA) that was released on Tuesday (Mar 22) highlighted that next-generation technologies such as nuclear energy as well as geothermal energy have the potential to play a part in Singapore’s future energy supply mix. The Energy 2050 Committee report focused on a scenario-based approach for Singapore to steer the energy sector in 2050, depending on the pace of how low-carbon energy technologies such as hydrogen, new geothermal and nuclear technologies advance and are deployed globally, which it deemed “critical uncertainties”.
US
Oil edged lower on Tuesday after it looked unlikely that European Union nations would agree to join the United States in a Russian oil embargo in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine. EU foreign ministers were split on the ban as some countries, including Germany, say the bloc is too dependent on Russia’s fossil fuels to withstand such a step. Brent crude fell 14 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to settle at US$115.48 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate crude ended 36 cents, or 0.3 per cent, lower at US$111.76.
The United States on Tuesday announced an agreement with Britain to end tariffs on Steel and Aluminum imports imposed by former president Donald Trump in 2018 on national security grounds. “By allowing for a flow of duty-free steel and aluminum from the UK, we further ease the gap between supply and demand for these products in the United States,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement. “And by removing the UK’s retaliatory tariffs, we reopen the British market to beloved American products.” The deal was the latest in a series of efforts by President Joe Biden to settle trade spats with US allies, some of which were long-running and others started under the Trump administration.
Tesla will on Tuesday (Mar 22) deliver to customers the first 30 Model Y cars made at its 5 billion euro (S$7.5 billion) Gruenheide plant, launching its first European production hub that is the biggest investment in a German car factory in recent history. Chief executive Elon Musk arrived in Berlin on Monday for the event, tweeting: “Excited to hand over the first production cars made by Giga Berlin-Brandenburg tomorrow!” The chosen clients will receive the Model Y Performance configuration, a vehicle costing 63,990 euros with a 514 km (320 miles) range, Tesla said, adding new orders from the plant could be delivered from April. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will attend the event that Musk had hoped would happen 8 months ago. Even so, local authorities said it had still been completed relatively swiftly.
Source: SGX Masnet, The Business Times, Bloomberg, Channel NewsAsia, Reuters, CNBC, PSR
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Date: 21 March 2022

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