SG Morning Highlights | Singapore retail sales growth slows to 6.2% in November

Advancers / Decliners is 82 to 76, with 134.77 million securities worth S$127.77 million changing hands.

Asian markets rose Thursday (Jan 5), led by Hong Kong after the city's traders extended an impressive start to the year thanks to optimism over China's reopening and officials there making key policy changes to encourage investment.

Oil prices also staged a mild rebound but remain under pressure after losing around nine per cent in the previous two days owing to demand concerns.

Asia's advance tracked a rally on Wall Street, which came even as minutes from the Federal Reserve's December meeting showed officials intended to keep lifting rates to fight decades-high inflation.

Singapore's retail sales rose 6.2 per cent on the year in November, continuing from the previous month's 10.3 per cent growth, Department of Statistics (Singstat) data showed on Thursday (Jan 5).

UOB senior economist Alvin Liew noted that this marked the first single-digit growth after seven months.

On a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis, retail sales were down 3.7 per cent, reversing from the 0.1 per cent growth charted in October.

Sim would have turned 68 this year.

In a statement on Thursday, Creative said he "passed away peacefully" and paid tribute to Sim's "immense contributions" to the company.

This is after it implemented sludge treatment facilities within waste water treatment projects in recent years.

On Thursday (Jan 5), China Everbright said it expects the project to command an investment of some 186 million yuan (S$36.3 million).

The Singapore listed operator inked a lease agreement for retail space of more than 31,000 square feet in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province.

Sheng Siong said the new store is expected to be operational before the end of the second quarter of 2023, but the outlet is not expected to have a significant impact on the group's financial performance for the financial year 2022.