Stocks to watch: Keppel Land, Swiber Holdings, Sitra Holdings

KEPPEL Land confirmed that it is moving into the next stage of development of its 42-storey Saigon Centre Phase Two with work starting on 37 storeys of offices and serviced apartments in its landmark mixed-use development in Ho Chi Minh City. Its retail podium already has a pre-commitment of about 40 per cent with anchor tenant Takashimaya set to take up about 15,000 square metres to house its first ever department store in Vietnam.

Swiber Holdings saw its stake in subsidiary Vallianz Holdings diluted marginally due to an increase in its share capital. Brokers are also less bullish about the stock given the decline of its share price and relatively slow new order flow with the group announcing its last order win in June. OCBC Investment Research warned that "with falling oil prices and the slow order win momentum" it believes that Swiber "with high overheads and operating on thin margins" could be more susceptible to any downturn in sentiment, and that its upcoming Q3 results could continue to be lacklustre.

Sitra Holdings (International) saw its share price surge almost 36 per cent on Thursday following a bullish report by a stockbroking house saying that the company is worth a lot more than originally estimated. Maybank-Kim Eng noted that Sitra's 10 per cent stake in a Sungei Kadut industrial property is worth a lot more than originally estimated, with an open market value of S$8.7 million, and could deliver a valuation surplus attributable to Sitra of S$9.1 million. Its share price closed on Thursday half a cent higher at 1.9 Singapore cents, reaching a two-month high, with some 33.6 million shares traded.