SG Morning Highlights | Singapore Stocks' Market Cap Up 4.6% in July

Advancers / Decliners is 121 to 72, with 113.85 million securities worth S$129.23 million changing hands.

The total market capitalisation of Singapore stocks gained 4.6 per cent in July, amid a better-than-expected corporate earnings reporting season.

Data compiled by The Business Times indicated that market cap of the overall Singapore market was S$841.6 billion in July, up from S$804.7 billion at end-June.

Of the 624 companies listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX), gainers outnumbered losers 250 to 230.

As share prices of tech companies rallied over the last decade, generous stock grants and options dished out by companies led to windfalls for many employees. But with the recent slump in tech stocks, maximising gains from such instruments has become trickier.

Jane (not her real name), a Singapore-based employee of Amazon, experienced this first-hand when she was hit with a tax bill this year that was more than triple her monthly net salary. Even if paid in instalments over 12 months, the tax bill would eat up a quarter of her pay cheque every month.

This fulfils a pre-condition set out by Milkyway Chemical to make its S$0.2266 per share offer for LHN Logistics.

In an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) held on Monday (Jul 31), 244,447,450 shares were represented in the votes, out of 408,945,400 shares eligible to attend and vote for or against the proposed resolution.

Gross revenue for the half-year period was up 12.7 per cent to S$774.8 million, from S$687.6 million in the same period a year earlier.

This was mainly due to contributions from CICT's acquisitions of CapitaSky and its Australian portfolio, its asset enhancement initiative at Raffles City Singapore, and increased rental income from most of its Singapore properties, the trust’s manager said on Tuesday (Aug 1).

This was mainly due to the enlarged unit base with 431.1 million new units to partially fund the acquisition of 12 Japan nursing homes in March 2022, the manager said on Tuesday (Aug 1).

Distributable income rose 1 per cent year on year to S$25.5 million from S$25.3 million previously, on higher contributions from Japan properties acquired in March and September last year.

Revenue for the period fell 4 per cent from US$2.2 billion to US$2.1 billion a year prior. Margins were compressed due to external factors that impacted production costs and average selling prices (ASPs) of Japfa's products.

High raw material costs increased input costs across the agri-food company, from breeding, fattening and other operations. Inflationary pressures had an effect on demand and Japfa's ability to increase ASPs.