SG Morning Highlights: Singapore's export growth continues 20-month streak of expansion in July but eases to 7%

Advancers / Decliners is 75 to 43, with 50.02 million securities worth S$85.73 million changing hands.

Singapore's key exports in July grew for the 20th straight month, albeit at a slower pace compared to the previous month, data from Enterprise Singapore showed on Wednesday (Aug 17).

Non-oil domestic exports (NODX) rose 7 per cent year on year in July, easing from the previous month's growth, which had been revised to 8.5 per cent. This came on the back of an increase in both electronic and non-electronic exports.

The export of electronic products expanded 10.3 per cent, faster than the 4.1 per cent growth in June, with much of the growth coming from integrated circuits, parts of integrated circuits and disk drives.

Inflation in Singapore is expected to peak in the next 2 to 4 months and will start to ease thereafter, said Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong.

He added that the extent of this easing towards the year-end and where the new inflation rates will stabilise at are big uncertainties.

Inflation rates in Singapore may very well settle at a higher rate given the geopolitical environment, supply chain issues and how economies are transitioning toward becoming more sustainable, said Wong in an interview with Bloomberg.

AMTD Assets, AMTD Group's global real estate arm, holds a global portfolio of premium whole building properties, which includes Dao by Dorsett AMTD Singapore as well as properties in Hong Kong and Canada.

The net purchase consideration amounted to US$268 million, after deducting the outstanding liabilities associated with the properties, said the announcement. The consideration will be settled by the issuance of about 30.9 million newly issued Class B ordinary shares of AMTD Idea Group, at US$8.68 per share.

AMTD Idea Group, which is dual-listed in New York and Singapore, will then inject AMTD Assets into AMTD Digital at the same valuation in return for 515,385 newly issued Class B ordinary shares of AMTD Digital at US$520 per share, the companies said.

While Frencken's revenue for H1 ended June rose 3.6 per cent to S$388.9 million, its earnings declined by 16.6 per cent to S$26.1 million on higher costs. Analyst Jarick Seet believes that its performance in FY2022 may worsen.

"Our downgrade is premised on the fact that the stock's closing price is now close to our target price (of S$1.24), and the company's outlook is somewhat lacklustre," he said. Frencken was trading at S$1.18, down 0.8 per cent or S$0.01, as at 10.02 am on Tuesday.

The lower price target comes on the back of a lower price-to-earnings multiple, which analyst John Cheong said is to capture the potential decline in industry sentiment as more global players such as Intel caution for a weaker near-term outlook.

In a report on Tuesday (Aug 16), Cheong said he nonetheless remains positive on AEM as he believes the semiconductor equipment maker's new back-end testing equipment would benefit from demand from Intel's new fabrication plants. The US tech giant's older fabrication plants would continue contributing to steady demand for AEM's consumables and services as well as equipment upgrades, he added.

Among others, the JV company will explore a potential 2.2 billion baht share subscription for a 50 per cent stake in BetterBe Marketplace, a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of Thailand-listed The Siam Cement Public Company Ltd.

This will be subject to satisfactory due diligence and the requisite approvals with no certainty or assurance that the potential investment will materialise, said both companies in their respective bourse filings on Tuesday (Aug 16).