Stocks to watch: UOB, GLP, Global Premium Hotels, Tuan Sing, AusGroup, Baker Technology

A MIXED bag of earnings reports on Friday morning and Thursday night may set the pace for a directionless market on Friday, after an overnight retreat of Wall Street stocks amid disappointing tech earnings reports and the potential for an interest-rate hike in December.

The UOB Group reported on Friday that its net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2015, slipped one per cent from a year ago to S$858 million. Total income was 5.8 per cent higher at S$2.1 billion, led by strong core income and one-off gains from sale of investment securities.

Global Logistic Properties (GLP) reported on Friday that its net profit for the fiscal second quarter ended Sept 30, 2015, grew 27.4 per cent from a year ago to about US$114 million. The results were driven by development gains in Japan, GLP's entry into the US market and the absence of foreign-exchange losses compared to the prior year. During the quarter, Japan earnings were up on the back of higher development gains.

Global Premium Hotels on Thursday night reported a 30 per cent slide in profit year on year to S$3.57 million for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2015. A dip in tourist arrivals as well as downward pressure from additional supply in the hotel industry have affected occupancy rates and revenue per available room, the group highlighted.

Tuan Sing Holdings on Thursday night posted an 8 per cent drop in group net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2015, to S$16.2 million, due to an impairment loss of S$7.7 million recognised in the current quarter relating to the group's development land in Fuzhou, China. Excluding this impact, net profit would have been S$23.9 million or 36 per cent higher than that of last year, attributable to higher contributions from property in Singapore and hotels investment in Australia.

AusGroup reported a net profit of A$348,000 (S$347,000), down from A$2.83 million a year ago, for the first quarter ended Sept 30, 2015, due to higher costs and expenses. Its revenue rose 1.7 per cent to A$132.75 million, driven by a better-than-expected performance in the maintenance services and access services business units.

Baker Technology chalked up a 38 per cent drop year on year in net profit to S$2.66 million for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2015, in line with lower revenue. Revenue fell sharply from S$21.11 million to S$5.56 million, down 74 per cent, on the back of a slowdown in the oil and gas industry.