Singapore

Asian FX futures recorded a total of $1.8t for the year.

Some of its key finance personnel were stuck in Wuhan.

Changi airport traffic could plunge, which affects most of the firms’ operations.

Five-room prices inched up by 1.2% and executive rooms rose by 0.9% YoY.

The trade relates to a $3.5m letter of credit transaction between Audi Singapore and Premium Automobiles. DBS Bank has successfully completed the first trade financing transaction on Singapore’s Networked Trade Platform (NTP) in collaboration with Audi Singapore (Audi) and Audi’s local distributor, Premium Automobiles (Premium). The inaugural trade relates to a $3.5m letter of credit transaction for a trade of Audi cars between Audi and Premium. By digitalising the process through the NTP, Audi and its retail partner Premium now have the capability to submit bank applications, as well as send and receive trade documents online. This enables DBS to receive and start processing the e-applications in real-time, cutting short the trade financing processing time from about a week to under one working day, yielding greater operational efficiencies for both buyer and seller. In addition, as trade documents are uploaded onto the NTP, all trade participants are able to enjoy real-time updates on the progress of their transaction, enabling them to better plan their working capital needs. The first transaction marks a critical step towards transforming documentary trade, of which domestic letters of credit constitute around US$150b of Singapore’s trade flows. DBS, Audi and Premium are currently working on the second trade on the NTP valued at $2.8m. DBS is also one of the key banks leading the Trade Finance Compliance (TFC) initiative, which is a digital service on the NTP to boost trade security in Singapore. Launched in September 2019, the TFC service aims to tackle trade finance compliance challenges by addressing obstacles faced by financial institutions when financing trade in Asia, such as trade fraud risks and the lack of reliable data to conduct price checks for non-commoditised goods – which often do not have established pricing benchmarks.

The IPO is expected to raise about $140.38m.

The travel agency firm plans to consolidate 50 existing ordinary shares into one.

And a pair of freehold Serangoon Road two-storey shophouses have been put up for sale.

CapitaLand led the gains amongst top active stocks with a 2.75% leap.

The tech sector’s growth was partly attributed to Singapore’s strong IP rights protection.

The company’s first kiosk will serve residents of Ola executive condominium.

The Singapore dollar dropped 0.9% to $1.3824 against the US dollar.

The World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations’ agency for international public health, is having its annual executive board meeting in Geneva this week, from the 3rd to 8th of February. This is the meeting where the global public health agenda for the upcoming year will be set. This time, the meeting will be under intense public scrutiny, due to the looming public health crisis of the outbreak of the Novel coronavirus. Therefore, coordinating a response to such drug resistant transnational diseases should be a top priority since the world will be looking to the WHO for leadership in fighting them.

OCBC bought back 750,000 shares for $8.25m.

More than half of $190m was secured in its O&G sector.

The UAE-based firm said that the association has not worked towards a better deal for P&P holders.