Daily Debrief: What Happened Today

Moody's upgrades Singapore banks' long-term rating to 'stable'

Moody's Investors Service has upgraded its long-term rating of Singapore's three large banking groups to "stable" as solvency pressures become manageable, even as it downgraded baseline credit assessments (BCA) and subordinated debt and capital instrument ratings.

Developers' home sales in Nov down 31.4% from Oct, 13.3% up y-o-y

Singapore residential sales clocked by developers in November were stronger than a year ago but weaker compared to October, according to statistics released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Friday.

SIA to start flying to Stockholm from May 2017

Singapore Airlines will be adding in May 2017 a second Scandinavian city - Stockholm - to its route network and deepening its partnership with Scandinavian Airlines.

Singapore retail sales up 2.2% y-o-y in Oct

Singapore's retail sales in October grew by 2.2 per cent year-on-year, same as in September. Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales actually declined 0.3 per cent year-on-year.

MAS plans to make share short-selling transparent

Singapore has proposed new rules that would require investors to report short sales of shares - a further sign authorities are stepping up scrutiny of investors who take a negative view on listed companies and aggressively sell their shares.

GLP sets up US$620m fund, completes US$1.1b US acquisition

Mainboard-listed warehouse provider Global Logistic Properties (GLP) has announced the establishment of a US$620 million fund that is expected to invest US$1.5 billion over three years, a day after it completed an US$1.1 billion acquisition of US properties.

Alibaba gets nod to raise SingPost stake

The Singapore Exchange has given the green light for Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group to raise its stake in Singapore Post.

The STI Today

Singapore shares close lower on worries of more US rate hikes than expected

The US Federal Reserve lived up to expectations with a 25 basis point interest rate hike on Wednesday but the surprise came in its "dot plot" which suggested three rate hikes in 2017 instead of the two that the market had expected. As a result, Wall Street fell sharply and on Thursday, the Straits Times Index suffered its largest fall in about three weeks when it dropped 23.29 points to 2,930.77.