Market Snapshot

Singapore stocks opened higher on Thursday. STI rose 0.1%; Thomson Medica rose 2%; Sembcorp Industries and CapitaLandInvest rose 0.8%.

Stocks to Watch

Sembcorp Industries: Units of Sembcorp Industries and state-owned utilities company Sarawak Energy have tied up with Prysmian for a hydropower project that could supply Singapore with 1 gigawatt (GW) of green electricity from the Malaysian state, Sembcorp said on Wednesday (Mar 19). Prysmian is an Italian subsea cable maker that produces high-voltage submarine and underground cable systems. The deal also involves technical partner SP PowerInterconnect, a subsidiary of Singapore’s state-owned utilities company SP Group. The potential import of an estimated 1 GW of green electricity from Sarawak to Singapore is subject to regulatory approvals. Sembcorp shares closed S$0.05 or 0.8 per cent lower at S$6.15 on Wednesday, before the announcement.

Thomson Medical: The healthcare player will develop Thomson Hospital Iskandariah - a 1.5 hectare, multi-speciality healthcare institution in Johor focusing on areas such as oncology, orthopaedics, and obstetrics and gynaecology. The tertiary hospital will have around 300 beds, with the capacity to scale up to 400, said group chief executive Melvin Heng in an interview with The Business Times. The hospital has been in the works for some time. Thomson Medical, then privately held, inked a memorandum of understanding with mainboard-listed Rowsley in 2015 to develop a healthcare hub on that piece of land. The healthcare hub is expected to be completed by 2030. Shares of Thomson Medical traded flat on Wednesday, at S$0.041.

Prudential: The insurer’s new business profit was up 11 per cent, on a constant exchange rate basis at US$3.08 billion for the financial year ended December. On Thursday, Prudential noted that 14 markets achieved double-digit year-on-year growth in new business profit, led by Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. Shares of Prudential ended Wednesday flat at US$8.21 on the Singapore Exchange (SGX).

Trendlines: The mainboard-listed company terminated its subsidiary’s chief executive officer and director Anton Wibowo for allegedly stealing of US$2.1 million from the unit. The startup incubator based in Singapore and Israel said on Wednesday that it is considering legal recourse against Wibobo in relation to the misappropriations. This will include any steps deemed feasible for asset recovery. Shares of Trendlines closed Wednesday flat at $0.039.

Ping An Insurance: The Chinese insurance giant reported a 47.8 per cent rise in its net profit last year, driven by growth in its life and health insurance business as demand recovered. The group posted a net profit of 126.607 billion yuan (S$23.3 billion) in 2024, compared with 85.665 billion yuan a year earlier, it said in a filing released on Wednesday. The new business value of the life and health insurance business, which measures the profitability of new policies sold, grew by 28.8 per cent to 28.53 billion yuan last year. The growth was due to a recovery in market demand and reforms to improve the quality of insurance agents, the filing said. The Ping An Insurance SDR on SGX closed on Wednesday 1.4 per cent or S$0.06 higher, at S$4.44.

Abundance Intl: Abundance International called for a trading halt on Thursday morning, pending the release of an announcement. The counter closed on Wednesday 11.8 per cent or S$0.002 higher, at S$0.019.

SG Local News

Singapore Resident Employment Rebounded in 2024, but Retrenchments Ticked up in Q4: MOM

Singapore’s labour market continued to expand in 2024 on the back of strong economic performance and positive business sentiments, though it faces more risks in 2025 from global uncertainties and trade tensions.

There were also indications in the final quarter of 2024 of more challenges for the job market – as quarterly retrenchments ticked up and the year-on-year job vacancy ratio dipped.

For the whole of 2024, the number of employed residents – meaning Singapore citizens and permanent residents – grew by 8,800 in 2024, reversing the decline of 4,600 over the previous year, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said on March 19 in its fourth-quarter labour market report.

Economists Keep 2.6% Forecast for Singapore’s 2025 Growth; Indonesia Slowdown to Have “Limited“ Impact

Private-sector economists maintained a median forecast of 2.6 per cent for Singapore’s 2025 growth – with 3.8 per cent growth expected in the first quarter – and lowered their expectations for inflation, in a quarterly survey on Wednesday (Mar 19).

The survey was sent out on Feb 14, but economists told The Business Times that developments since then – including Indonesia’s economic slowdown and market turmoil – have not changed their views.

In the latest survey of professional forecasters by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the median forecast for full-year headline inflation fell to 1.7 per cent, from 1.9 per cent in the previous quarter’s survey. For core inflation, the forecast slipped to 1.5 per cent, from 1.8 per cent.

Top Three Floors at 20 Collyer Quay Transact for S$91.8 Million

The top three floors at 20 Collyer Quay, a Grade A commercial building owned by GuocoLand have been transacted for S$91.8 million or S$3,148 per square foot (psf). 

A caveat was lodged for the strata units, which span 29,160 square feet in total, on Mar 10, URA Realis data showed.

GuocoLand acquired the 999-year leasehold 20 Collyer Quay, then called Tung Centre, in the late 1980s. The deal excluded interests in the leases of several office units that had been sold to third parties by the previous owner of the building, before it was sold to GuocoLand.