Stocks to watch: Keppel DC Reit, Metro, Cosco, Dukang

THE following stocks had announcements that could affect trading activity on Thursday.

KEPPEL DC Reit on Thursday said it will buy the land and the shell and core building of Intellicentre 2 (IC2) in Sydney, Australia, from Macquarie Telecom for A$43.28 million (S$45.88 million). Upon completion of the transaction, Macquarie Telecom will enter into a lease agreement for the property for an initial term of 20 years, with an option to renew for two further terms of five years each.

METRO Holdings on Thursday reported a 82.7 per cent drop in net profit to S$7.6 million for its fourth quarter ended March 31, 2015, down from S$43.8 million a year ago. This was despite revenue growing 19.2 per cent to S$41.7 million. Revenue rose due to higher turnover from the retail division as the new store at Metro Centrepoint started operations in Q3 FY2015. But earnings fell because of higher operational and overhead costs, mostly from the new Metro Centrepoint store.

Cosco Corporation on Thursday said it has agreed, in conjunction with its American shipowner customer, to extend the delivery dates of two vessels, originally scheduled for delivery in early 2014. This will be extended until June 30, 2016. This is despite the fact that the construction of both vessels are "significantly completed". The two contracts were part of four vessels, worth over US$105 million in all, signed in early 2012.

Dukang Distillers on Thursday responded to the Singapore Exchange's queries, saying it was "not aware" of any potentially material and price-sensitive information, nor any public circulation of information by rumours or reports, to explain the unusual volume movements in its share trading on Wednesday.

Its shares rose to a six-month high of S$0.189, with 3.8 million shares traded on Wednesday, more than double the volume on Tuesday.

Hour Glass, Courts Asia, Yongmao, Stratech Group, Biosensors all reported earnings on Wednesday evening.