Stocks to watch: Oil companies, Noble Group, Keppel Corp

Worries of a global oversupply of crude oil weighed on the oil market on Thursday after US inventories leapt to another record high this week.

And while the market continues to tolerate the stock growth with no new lows in oil price since mid-January despite the surge, analysts cautioned that the market may be forced to acknowledge the ongoing excess at some point.

One of Asia's biggest commodity traders, Noble Group has pledged to provide more disclosures and on Thursday issued a strong rebuttal to claims of improper accounting made by Iceberg Research.

The Singapore-listed group has seen about US$1 billion wiped off its market value since Iceberg said last month that Noble's accounting methods inflated the value of its assets - a claim that Noble has rejected and blamed on a disgruntled former junior employee.

Noble's counter closed up half a cent to S$1.005 on Thursday.

Mainboard-listed Keppel Corp's unit, Keppel Seghers, has built an energy-from-waste plant in the United Kingdom which has begun commercial operations.

The plant has been handed over to the unit's client, INEOS Runcorn (TPS) Limited.

It is one of the biggest waste and renewable energy projects in Europe and can process up to 425,000 tonnes of refuse-derived fuel per year, Keppel said.

Shares of Keppel Corp closed down three cents to S$8.76.