DAILY MORNING NOTE | 25 July 2023

SINGAPORE shares opened higher but closed in the red on Monday (Jul 24), joining China’s key indices in red ink while the rest of the major Asian bourses registered gains. Singapore share declined 0.4 per cent or 13.16 points to 3,265.14, with 14 of the 30 constituents including the banking trio finishing lower.

WALL Street stocks advanced on Monday (Jul 24) ahead of major earnings and central bank announcements as the Dow won its 11th-straight gain.The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.5 per cent at 35,411.24 as the index touched a fresh 15-month peak during the trading.The broad-based S&P 500 advanced 0.4 per cent to 4,554.64, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.2 per cent at 14,058.87.

SG

KEPPEL Data Centre (DC) Reit posted a 0.04 per cent increase in distribution per unit (DPU) to S$0.05051 for the first half of the 2023 financial year ended Jun 30. The figure was S$0.05049 in the corresponding period a year ago .Distributable income rose 0.2 per cent to S$91.3 million, while net property income increased 3.3 per cent to S$127.4 million over the same time period. Gross revenue rose 3.6 per cent to S$140.5 million, the Reit’s manager announced in a bourse filing on Monday (Jul 24).

CROMWELL European Real Estate Investment Trust reported a total portfolio value of 2.3 billion euros (S$3.4 billion) for the first half of 2023, representing a 1.6 per cent decrease from December last year. This comes after taking into account the valuation increases on properties under development in Italy and the Czech Republic and prior to capital expenditure, said its manager on Monday (Jul 24).

FAR East Shopping Centre is up for en bloc sale with a S$928 million guide price, marketing agent CBRE said on Monday (Jul 24). This translates to a land rate of S$3,421 per square foot per plot ratio, including a land betterment charge based on a maximum building gross floor area (GFA) of 290,574 square feet (sq ft) allowable, if the buyer takes advantage of the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s strategic development incentive (SDI) scheme.

EMBATTLED kitchen solutions provider Kitchen Culture announced via two bourse filings on Monday (Jul 24) that it has paid up its rental arrears to property developer CDL Properties, and appointed five new directors. The actions are part of several corporate moves to recover from its legal and financial woes. In one of the filings, the company’s board said that it had made a payment of S$430,662.13 to its landlord CDL Properties, a wholly-owned subsidiary of City Developments Limited.

US

SPOTIFY Technology on Monday (Jul 24) raised prices for its premium plans across several countries including the US and UK, as the music-streaming company looks to boost profitability in an uncertain economy.The move will result in a US$1 price increase for Spotify’s US plans, with the premium single now starting at US$10.99, duo at US$14.99, family at US$16.99 and the student plan at US$5.99.

ALIBABA Group Holding has decided not to sell any part of its one-third stake in Ant Groupduring the Chinese fintech leader’s imminent share buyback, saying it wants to maintain its slice of an important partner. Alibaba said in an exchange filing it won’t take part in Ant’s plan to buy back as much as 7.6 per cent of its stock, which the latter’s board has approved. That decision comes after the e-commerce company and Temasek Holdings said they were considering unloading part of the stakes during the programme. Ant, a fintech pioneer that once dominated online spheres from mobile payments to money management, has lost much of its value since regulators scrapped what would have been a record IPO at the eleventh hour in 2020.

UBS has been ordered to pay US$388 million to British and US regulators over Credit Suisse’s dealings with private investment firm Archegos Capital Management, the Swiss bank said on Monday (Jul 24).The settlement is the first of several that UBS could have to pay after it last month closed its takeover of Credit Suisse, which was involved in a number of legal battles.

Tesla delivered almost 890,000 cars in the first half of this year, more electric vehicles (EVs) than Volkswagen (VW), BMW, Mercedes-Benz Group and Porsche combined. The Germans are struggling as software issues delay key models and contribute to waning sales in China, their biggest market, where Tesla and local champion BYD have raced ahead. They are even playing second fiddle in their home market, where Tesla remains the top EV brand. Investors will hear from three of the German companies this week, with Porsche reporting quarterly earnings on Wednesday (Jul 26), followed by Mercedes and VW on Thursday.

ALPHABET’S Google violated a software developer’s patent rights with its remote-streaming technology and must pay US$338.7 million in damages, a federal jury in Waco, Texas decided on Friday (Jul 21).The jury found that Google’s Chromecast and other devices infringe patents owned by Touchstream Technologies related to streaming videos from one screen to another, a court representative said on Monday.

Source: SGX Masnet, Bloomberg, Channel NewsAsia, Reuters, CNBC, WSJ, The Business Times, PSR

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