Market Snapshot

Singapore stocks opened higher on Monday. STI rose 0.5%; CSE Global jumped 2.4%; NIO gained 1.8%; DBS Group rose 0.7%.

Stocks to Watch

THE following companies saw new developments that may affect the trading of their securities on Monday (Jan 6):

Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT): It is divesting a property in Malaysia for RM31.5 million (S$9.6 million) or 31.3 per cent above value. On Friday, its manager said the divestment is expected to be completed in the first half of FY2025/2026, with no material impact on MLT’s net asset value and net property income for the current financial year. Units of MLT closed S$0.01 or 0.8 per cent higher at S$1.30, before the announcement.

CSE Global: The technology solutions provider is proposing to divest its subsidiary’s industrial property in the United States for US$29.3 million. This would allow the group to free up capital to purchase a larger property in the US for the expansion of CSE Global’s business, it said on Friday. Prior to the news, its shares ended S$0.01 or 2.4 per cent higher at S$0.425. 

SG Local News

Singapore Should Still See Real Wage Growth in 2025, but Probably Less Than in 2024

Singapore should see sustained real wage growth in 2025, as inflation cools and productivity gains allow for higher nominal pay. But whether this is better or worse than in 2024 remains uncertain.

Observers are split on the magnitude of wage growth in the coming year, given lingering uncertainties in the external environment, such as US president-elect Donald Trump’s planned tariff hikes.

According to official data that takes June as the reference point, real income growth in 2024 was 3.4 per cent, recovering from a decline of 2.2 per cent in 2023.

Singapore Hospital Operator Targets Wealthy Boomers in China

With more than 400 million Chinese set to enter their 60s over the coming decade, Singapore-based Perennial Holdings Pte. is betting on sound returns for investors able to meet the demand for premium care and services for this group, who were born in the country’s tumultuous 1960s but fortunate enough to reap the benefits of its stellar economic rise in the past few decades.

Perennial now operates two developments that integrate hospitals, rehabilitation facilities and other amenities in China, in the northern city of Tianjin and southwestern leisure and tourism capital Chengdu. In the Tianjin project, they also have elderly homes and assisted-living apartments, and in Xi’an, they plan to add such senior-care facilities to an existing development.

Ground Control to Singapore: Elon Musk’s SpaceX Signals Expansion in the Republic

Rocket maker SpaceX is expanding its presence in Singapore, establishing accounting and finance teams to support its satellite Internet provider unit, Starlink.

The company is recruiting for treasury and tax roles to bolster Starlink’s Asia-Pacific (Apac) operations, as seen in multiple job listings on recruitment portal JobsDB.

On LinkedIn, a recently hired, Singapore-based director of financial operations at SpaceX stated in her profile that she is “building accounting and tax teams from (the) ground up”.

Johor-Singapore SEZ on Radar of China Firms Eyeing Lower Costs, Improved Connectivity

The upcoming Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is not only drawing interest from companies in Singapore, it is also attracting plenty of attention from Chinese businesses looking to expand their operations.

Even before the formal agreement to establish the SEZ – expected to be signed on Tuesday (Jan 7) during the 11th Malaysia-Singapore Leaders’ Retreat in Putrajaya – Johor has already been on the radar of many Chinese companies.

The southern Malaysia state has become a hotspot for Chinese businesses setting up operations, said Lee Ting Han, the chairman of Johor’s investment, trade, consumer affairs and human resources committee.