Daily Debrief: What Happened Today

Singapore business optimism hits historical low: credit bureau

Local firms in Singapore are increasingly more pessimistic, depressing a widely-followed optimism index into a contractionary zone for the first time in three years after it took a turn for the worse in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Singapore extends 3% wage offset for hiring older workers till 2017

The Singapore government will extend the special wage offset for hiring older workers which is set to expire by year-end until the new re-employment age of 67 comes into effect in 2017, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said in a joint press release on Tuesday.

AHPETC again gets worst rating in governance, S&CC arrears management

Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) has again been slapped with the worst banding in service and conservancy charges (S&CC) arrears management and corporate governance, the latest Town Council Report showed on Tuesday.

MAS offers S$300m of Singapore Savings Bonds for January, targets S$4b for 2016

Investors can buy up to S$4 billion of Singapore Savings Bonds in 2016, with up to S$300 million on offer for the January series, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced on Tuesday.

Circulation at Singapore Press Holdings increases 4.3%

Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) saw total circulation of its newspapers' print and digital editions increase by 4.3 per cent from a year ago, amid changing media consumption patterns, to average at 1.1 million copies per day in the financial period ended August 2015.

Standard Chartered, RBS avoid need for more capital in BOE tests

Standard Chartered Plc and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc escaped having to raise additional capital in the Bank of England's latest stress test, even though they fell short in some parts of the assessment.

The STI Today

Singapore shares close higher in line with Hong Kong, China on yuan news

Concerns over whether the yuan's inclusion as a reserve currency would spark volatility in equity markets proved unfounded as stocks on Tuesday rose sharply after confirmation that China's currency has indeed been added to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF's) Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket.