Singapore shares rallied this week, with the STI up 1.36% weekly.

Japfa rose 16% this week, Alibaba HK SDR 5to1 rose 14%, YZJ Fin Hldg rose 5.6%; Thomson Medical fell 8.2%. Golden Agri-Res fell 4%.

Market News

Japfa Surges 16% This Week After News of S$0.62 Privatisation Offer

Shares of agri-food company Japfa soared 15% on Monday (Jan 27) after news broke last Friday that family members of its founder have offered to take the company private at an offer price of S$0.62 apiece. 

Alibaba Rolls Out AI Model It Says Can Outperform DeepSeek's and OpenAI's

Alibaba has rolled out a new artificial intelligence (AI) model it says can outperform leading models from DeepSeek, OpenAI, and Meta Platforms. 

The Chinese tech giant posted on WeChat that its upgraded Qwen 2.5 Max performed on par with Amazon (AMZN)-backed Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and surpassed OpenAI's GPT-4o, DeepSeek's V3, and Meta's Llama 3.1 in some benchmark tests.

The news comes just days after concerns about the surging popularity of an app from Chinese startup DeepSeek, which runs on an AI model it claimed can perform on par with American rivals at a fraction of the cost, sent U.S. tech stocks into a tailspin Monday.

Thomson Medical Expects Loss for H1

Thomson Medical Group, together with its subsidiaries, has announced an expected after-tax loss for the six months ended 31 December 2024, based on a preliminary review of its unaudited financial results.

The anticipated loss is attributed primarily to weaker performance in the Malaysia market, which was impacted by the termination and discounting of certain insurance contracts. Additionally, higher interest expenses related to the acquisition of Far East Medical Vietnam Limited (FEMVN) and the cessation of certain projects in Singapore have contributed to the Group's financial challenges during the period.

US Looking into Whether DeepSeek Bought Nvidia Chips from Singapore Companies: Report

The United States is looking into whether Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company DeepSeek got around US export restrictions by buying Nvidia chips through companies in Singapore, Bloomberg reported on Friday (Jan 31), citing sources.

DeepSeek rose to prominence early this week when it soared to the top of Apple Store’s download charts, and caused a meltdown in US tech stocks.

Its model is said to be able to perform on a par with, or outperform, Open AI and other US AI models.

The Week Ahead