Stocks to watch: Keppel, SPH Reit, MLT, Golden Agri-Res, EHT, Chasen, Silkroad Nickel

THE following companies saw new developments that may affect trading of their securities on Friday:

Keppel Corporation: A subsidiary of Keppel Corp's infrastructure arm is investing 53.02 million euros (S$80 million) for a 20 per cent stake in Swiss energy firm MET Group. Keppel Infrastructure and MET Group will also jointly explore investment opportunities in European energy infrastructure assets. Keppel Corp shares rose one cent to S$6.70 on Thursday before the announcement.

SPH Reit: It has obtained A$205 million (S$194.8 million) in loans to finance its proposed acquisition of a half-stake in Westfield Marion Shopping Centre in Adelaide. SPH Reit's gearing is expected to increase to 29.5 per cent from 27.5 per cent, after drawing down the loans and before the completion of the acquisition. Units of SPH Reit were up S$0.01 or 0.9 per cent to S$1.07 at Thursday's close, before the announcement.

Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT), Golden Agri-Resources: MLT has been added to the Straits Times Index, while Golden Agri-Resources will be excluded, following the latest quarterly review of the index by FTSE Russell. MLT units were up S$0.02 or 1.2 per cent to S$1.72 at Thursday's close, while shares of Golden Agri-Resources gained 1.5 Singapore cents or 7 per cent to 23 cents.

Eagle Hospitality Trust (EHT): The City of Long Beach's auditor will start an audit of the Queen Mary lease agreement. The upcoming audit relates to calendar years 2017 and 2018, before Eagle Hospitality Trust owned the leasehold interest of the retired cruise ship, now a floating hotel. Stapled securities of EHT closed at 53.5 US cents on Thursday, up one cent.

Chasen Holdings: The mainboard-listed firm's China subsidiary has won a 50 million yuan (S$9.7 million) contract to provide move-in services for a plant in Anhui province. The project will run for a year from December 2019 to November 2020.

Silkroad Nickel: The Catalist-listed nickel ore producer will form a joint venture to build and operate smelter facilities to produce nickel pig iron on the group's mine site in Sulawesi, Indonesia, it announced on Thursday after trading hours. Silkroad Nickel's shares closed S$0.01 or 3.7 per cent higher at S$0.28 on Thursday.

IPS Securex Holdings: The group on Thursday evening said it had secured a S$3.6 million maintenance order from a South-east Asian government agency. IPS will provide maintenance support services for integrated security solutions for one year. IPS shares last closed flat on Dec 4 at four Singapore cents.

Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust (Ascendas Reit): Some 498 million new units in the trust will begin trading on the Singapore Exchange at 9am on Friday. The new units were issued to partially fund Ascendas Reit's acquisition of 30 business parks in the US and Singapore.