Market Snapshot

STI kept rally, breaking 4000 points on Friday. STI up 0.5%; Sinarmas Land up 20%; KIT up 1%; Sembcorp up 0.5%.

Stocks to Watch

Sembcorp Industries : Its wholly owned subsidiary Sembcorp Solar Singapore has signed a 25-year renewable energy purchase agreement with Meta Platforms’ subsidiary Malkoha. Sembcorp will build, own and operate a roughly 150 megawatt-peak floating solar photovoltaic system on Kranji Reservoir to support Meta’s operations. Construction of the floating solar farm is expected to begin in the first half of 2027. Shares of Sembcorp closed 0.5 per cent or S$0.03 lower at S$6.37 on Thursday.

Nio : Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Nio on Thursday announced plans to raise HK$4 billion (S$688 million) through a share placement for the research and development of smart EVs. Some 136.8 million shares will be offered at HK$29.46 each – a nearly 10 per cent discount to the stock’s latest closing price of HK$32.55 on the Hong Kong bourse. Since the announcement, shares of Nio fell sharply on the New York Stock Exchange. In Singapore, the counter closed 3.2 per cent or US$0.14 lower at US$4.29 on Thursday.

Keppel Infrastructure Trust (KIT): Mark Yeo, the non-executive and independent director of Keppel Infrastructure Fund Management, the trustee-manager of KIT, will retire from his directorship role after the conclusion of its upcoming annual general meeting on Apr 15. It said in a Friday bourse filing that Yeo, 62, will concurrently step down from his roles as the chairman of the audit and risk committee, and as a member of the nomination and remuneration committee. Adrian Chan, 60, will replace him as the chairman of the audit and risk committee. Units of KIT closed unchanged on Thursday at S$0.42.

Sinarmas Land : An entity controlled by Indonesia’s billionaire Widjaja family – Lyon Investments – has made a voluntary unconditional cash offer for all the shares in Sinarmas Land that it does not already own at S$0.31 apiece. The offer on Thursday values the Singapore-listed property developer at S$1.32 billion. Lyon Investments currently holds about 70.3 per cent of the total number of issued shares in Sinarmas Land. The company’s trading halt was lifted post-close on Thursday. The counter closed at 0.275 on Monday before its trading halt.

Singapore Post : SingPost has completed the divestment of its Australian logistics business, Freight Management Holdings, for A$1 billion (S$845 million). The business was acquired by Australia-headquartered private equity investment firm Pacific Equity Partners. The divestment generated gross proceeds of about A$781.5 million – a notch higher than the previously expected A$775.9 million – and an estimated gain of S$289.5 million. Shares of SingPost closed 1.7 per cent or S$0.01 higher at S$0.585 on Thursday, before the news.

SG Local News

MAS seeks feedback on proposals giving retail investors access to private market assets

Retail investors in Singapore may soon be able to channel funds into private market assets, which have largely been the domain of richer individuals and the likes of pension and endowment funds.

Rising interest in the asset class is leading the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to ask for feedback on a regulatory framework that would give retail investors access to private markets. This will be through authorised long-term investment funds (LIFs).

Singapore fund inflows surge 167% to S$7.6 billion for 2024: Morningstar

Total net inflows into Singapore-registered funds hit S$7.6 billion for 2024, a surge of 167 per cent from S$2.85 billion in 2023, according to a report by financial-services firm Morningstar on Thursday (Mar 27).

The funds logged S$1.7 billion in net inflows in the fourth quarter, down from a record S$3.1 billion in the quarter before.

In Q4, fixed income and allocation funds drew the most interest from investors, recording net inflows of S$758.8 million – though 60 per cent down from Q3, and S$630.1 million, respectively.