Stocks to watch: First Reit, Keppel Corp, Darco, Addvalue, SMRT

A RECOVERY on Wall Street overnight may offer some impetus for Singapore investors to scour for trading ideas on Tuesday.

Corporates that just released their earnings results continue to provide some trading catalysts.

Among them, First Reit reported on Monday a 6.2 per cent rise in distributable income year on year to S$16.2 million for the first three months of 2016 on the back of new acquisitions. This translates to a distribution per unit (DPU) of 2.11 Singapore cents in the first quarter, up 2.4 per cent year on year.

According to Ronnie Tan, chief executive of the Reit's manager, this is the Reit's seventh consecutive rise in DPU since achieving its record DPU of two Singapore cents in Q2 2014.

The oil and gas sector, however, continues to face downward pressures.

Keppel Corporation reported a 41.5 per cent slump in net profit to S$210.6 million, on the back of a similar fall in revenue. Its topline dropped 38 per cent to S$1.7 billion, as revenue from the property division only partially offset reduced sales in the offshore and marine, infrastructure and investment divisions.

Some corporate updates also cast the spotlight on certain stocks.

Darco Water Technologies announced on Tuesday its subsidiary, Wuhan Kaidi Water Services Co, has secured a 40.9 million yuan (S$8.5 million) contract from Tianjin SDIC Jinneng Electric Power Co.

The project entails the construction of Phase II desulfurisation zero-liquid-discharge wastewater treatment system for Tianjin Power's power generating plant in North China, using Wuhan Kaidi's proprietary brine recovery technology and the mechanical vapour recompression technology from Vacom Systems LLC.

Addvalue Technologies' wholly owned unit Addvalue Innovation has entered into a three-year distribution contract with Zhongyou Century (Beijing) Communications Co to supply satellite communication terminals and provide related support services to the China regional maritime vessels market estimated to comprise more than 300,000 vessels.

The first batch of supply totalling about US$4 million, under the distribution contract signed, shall commence delivery from May 2016 and be completed by November. It will contribute positively to the financial performance of Addvalue for the financial year ending March 31, 2017.

SMRT Corporation unit SMRT Taxis announced on Monday that its subsidiary Strides Transportation has inked a one-year partnership with ride-booking platform Grab. Through the collaboration, Strides will provide car-booking services to commuters via the latter's GrabCar platform for a year.