Daily Debrief: What Happened Today

SGX keeping close tab on companies reporting sudden adverse financial changes

The Singapore Exchange is closely monitoring disclosures of companies, including those which show large swings in financial positions and performance, and the regulator warns it will not hesitate to report audit infractions to relevant authorities.

Rail commuters will have 'almost new' North-South, East-West lines in 2018: Khaw

Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan has promised that Singapore will have "almost new" North-South and East-West rail lines (NSEWL) when upgrading works are completed by 2018. In his blog post dated Nov 17, Mr Khaw outlined seven principal elements that are key to restoring NSEWL's reliability.

HDB launches 12,411 flats for sale in 25 towns

In the largest sales exercise of the Housing & Development Board (HDB), a total of 12,411 flats were launched for sale on Tuesday in 25 HDB towns or estates. These flats - comprising 7,061 BTO flats and 5,350 balance flats - are part of the November Build-To-Order (BTO) cum Sale of Balance Flats exercise.

NOL confirms talks on potential acquisition still on

Neptune Orient Lines Limited (NOL) on Tuesday morning confirmed that it is continuing in discussions with respect to a potential acquisition of the group as previously announced on Nov 7 on the local bourse.

Singapore non-oil domestic exports slip 0.5% in Oct

Singapore's non-oil domestic exports dipped 0.5 per cent in October from a year ago, after a 0.3 per cent rise in September. Trade promotion agency International Enterprise Singapore said this was due to a drop in electronic NODX which outweighed the increase in non-electronic NODX.

Terrorism costs the world US$52.9b in 2014, up tenfold since 2000: report

The economic cost of terrorism reached its highest ever level in 2014 at US$52.9 billion, an increase of 61 per cent from the previous year's total of US$32.9 billion, and a tenfold increase since 2000.

The STI Today

Singapore shares close mixed as STI narrowly avoids 8th straight loss

Wall Street's Monday rebound may have come as a pleasant surprise but it was not wholly unanticipated - the Straits Times Index (STI), which often functions as an advance predictor of the US's performance later on the same day, had already on Monday climbed significantly off its intraday low that day.

As a result, the impact of the US market's jump on the local market on Tuesday was subdued - after an initial bounce of about 25 points which was most likely thanks to leftover short covering from Monday, the STI then drifted to a nett gain of just 1.05 points at 2,916.78.