Stocks to watch: CapitaLand, Thai Beverage, Ezra Holdings

INVESTORS here looking to ride the rising tide of sentiment following the US stocks rally overnight may be looking out for some good news among Singapore listings.

Corporates that churned out some positive earnings reports include property developer CapitaLand and Thai Beverage.

CapitaLand ended 2016 on a strong note with a 73.8 per cent surge in net profit for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31 to S$430.5 million. This was fuelled by better operating performance, higher fair value gains on revaluation of investment properties and lower impairments.

Thai Beverage posted a profit of 7.7 billion baht (S$312 million) for the three-month period ended Dec 31, 2016, up 28 per cent from six billion baht in the previous year. This was due to an increase in net profit of beer, F&N/FCL operating results, and a decrease in net loss of non-alcoholic beverages business.

Revenue went down 8 per cent to 46.8 billion baht due to a decline in sales of the spirits business, beer segment, non-alcoholic beverages business and food business during the period of mourning for the death of the Thai king.

The woes of the oil and gas industry, however, are set to plague sentiment on the sector for now.

Ezra Holdings said on Tuesday night that a Singapore-incorporated company, Necotrans Singapore Pte Ltd, has filed a winding up application against EMAS-AMC Pte Ltd, a wholly owned company of the group's associate Emas Chiyoda Subsea.

Meanwhile, International Healthway Corporation (IHC) requested for a trading halt on Wednesday morning pending an announcement. OUE shored up its stake in IHC to 21.83 per cent this month, while the Riady family made a cash offer to raise the stake in its former parent firm, Healthway Medical Corporation).