logo
Yangzijiang Financial jumps over 22%; STI hits all-time high of 4,019

Yangzijiang Financial jumps over 22%; STI hits all-time high of 4,019

Straits Times7 hours ago
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
SINGAPORE – Investment manager Yangzijiang Financial saw its shares surge as much as 22.6 per cent last week before coming to a close at 90 cents on July 4.
Yangzijiang Financial on July 2 revealed the April 28 incorporation of its wholly owned subsidiary, Yangzijiang Maritime Development, at an issued and paid-up share capital of US$100 (S$130), comprising 100 ordinary shares issued at US$1 per share.
This follows an April 27 announcement in which Yangzijiang Financial disclosed the
possibility of spinning off its maritime investment segment into a new company to be listed on the mainboard of the Singapore Exchange (SGX).
Yangzijiang Maritime Development will be led by executive chairman and chief executive officer Ren Yuanlin, who is also the founder of Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, a Straits Times Index (STI) component stock. Yangzijiang Shipbuilding shares took a beating earlier in 2025 after US President Donald Trump first
proposed port fees on China-built ships .
Shares of the China-based shipbuilder have since recovered some ground, but closed the week flat at $2.21.
The STI hit an all-time high of 4,019 on July 4.
Property stocks contributed to its gains last week, but they retreated on July 4 after the Government
raised the seller's stamp duty (SSD) on private residential homes to between 4 per cent and 16 per cent, if a property is sold less than four years after the date of purchase.
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
Singapore First BTO project in Sembawang North to be offered in July HDB launch
World Tariffs will kick in on Aug 1 barring trade deals: US Treasury Secretary
Singapore Woman on SMRT's 190 bus injured after bottle thrown at vehicle leaves hole in window
Business Great Eastern says Takeover Code not breached when it shared IFA valuation with OCBC
Asia 'Don't be seen in India again': Indian nationals pushed into Bangladesh at gunpoint
Asia Thousands evacuated as Typhoon Danas lashes Taiwan
Asia Two women fatally stabbed at bar in Japan by man
Life Star Awards 2025: Christopher Lee wins big, including Special Achievement Award and Best Actor
Before the change, the SSD had been payable by those who sold a residential property within three years of purchase, at rates of between 4 per cent and 12 per cent.
Hongkong Land rose the most, by nearly 8.6 per cent, and closed July 4 at US$6.34. UOL rose 6.4 per cent through the week to close at $6.48, while City Developments rose 4.7 per cent to $5.39. CapitaLand Investment was up 2.6 per cent to $2.71.
Info-Tech's IPO well received, more privatisations possible
Software services provider Info-Tech Systems
ended its first trading day on July 4 at 91 cents , 4.6 per cent above its initial public offering (IPO) price.
The counter debuted on the mainboard at 95 cents and traded as high as 98 cents during the day. It is Singapore's second listing for 2025 and first mainboard listing in close to two years.
Info-Tech's IPO of some 24.9 million shares was fully subscribed at 87 cents apiece. It included five million shares for retail investors, which were 14.4 times subscribed.
The healthy response to Info-Tech's listing is good news for the local exchange, which has seen returning interest from companies seeking to list in Singapore.
On June 30, Dezign Format Group, which provides events, exhibitions and decor services across various industries,
lodged its preliminary prospectus to list on the Catalist . It follows a similar move by property revitalisation firm Lum Chang Creations on June 23.
The SGX may soon welcome another mainboard listing with NTT DC Reit, a real estate investment trust that will hold six data centres owned by Japanese telecoms giant NTT across the US, Austria and Singapore.
NTT DC Reit is seeking to raise roughly US$864 million if an overallotment option is included, according to Reuters, quoting a term sheet that marked the start of the bookbuilding process.
The value of the base offering is between US$772 million and US$812 million, while the overallotment option would add another US$51.5 million, the term sheet showed. The listing is targeted for July 14.
Listing interest has risen after the Monetary Authority of Singapore
announced measures in February to strengthen Singapore's equities market, including streamlined disclosure requirements for IPOs and a 20 per cent tax rebate for primary listings.
The increase in listing interest comes after the SGX had seen a dearth of new listings and a rising number of privatisations recently.
In 2025 so far, there have been 15 privatisation offers compared with 18 in 2024, and more could be on the cards, analysts said.
According to UOB Kay Hian analyst John Cheong, China Sunsine Chemical Holdings and Valuetronics Holdings are currently trading at steep discounts compared with their manufacturing peers, while investment holding company Avarga, Samudera Shipping and CH Offshore could be attractive takeover targets given their strong net cash positions.
Companies with high net cash are attractive privatisation targets as their strong balance sheets can help finance the deal and reduce risk for acquirers.
Construction stocks rally
Construction and industrial stocks closed the week with a strong showing.
Firms in the industry are expected to benefit from a slew of new projects following the unveiling of the
Urban Redevelopment Authority's Draft Master Plan 2025 on June 25.
The plan involves new public and private homes at the former Singapore Racecourse in Kranji, as well as in Dover and Newton. New neighbourhoods will be established in Paterson as well as Defu, while three new integrated community hubs will be built within the next 10 to 15 years in Sengkang, Woodlands North and Yio Chu Kang. Bishan will also see new mixed-use developments in the town centre, which will be positioned as a business node like Paya Lebar Central.
Other major projects include
Changi Airport Terminal 5 and the expansion of Marina Bay Sands, as well as upgrading works on the Cross Island Line and Thomson-East Coast Line extensions.
Construction and civil engineering firms Koh Brothers Group and OKP Holdings rose the most, with Koh Brothers jumping 14 per cent through the week to close at a five-year high of 22 cents, while OKP advanced 10 per cent to a record high of 94 cents.
Shares of OKP have nearly trebled in price since the start of 2025, after the Building and Construction Authority provided estimates of construction demand ranging between $47 billion and $53 billion.
Concrete technologies firm Pan United climbed by more than 8 per cent to close at 87 cents, while Hong Leong Asia, the industrial arm of Hong Leong Group, rose 5.8 per cent to $1.67.
Other market movers
Shares of Del Monte Pacific plunged by more than 11 per cent last week, closing July 4 at 5.6 cents.
The food and beverage firm announced that its US subsidiary, Del Monte Foods, is contemplating a going-concern sale process for all or substantially all of its assets after filing for bankruptcy.
As part of the process, Del Monte Pacific will relinquish control of its US subsidiary and deconsolidate it from its accounts. According to Del Monte Pacific's 2024 annual report, Del Monte Foods' US$1.7 billion in sales accounted for more than 70 per cent of the group's total sales.
In contrast, other consumer staple stocks rose, including Sheng Siong, which climbed 4.8 per cent through the week to $1.97, and DFI Retail Group, which rose 5.5 per cent to US$2.88.
What to look out for this week
The remaining shareholders of Great Eastern will vote on
whether to delist the company from the SGX in an extraordinary general meeting on July 8.
If 75 per cent of the minority shareholders vote in favour of a delisting, OCBC Bank will make an exit offer for the remaining 6.28 per cent of the shares in Great Eastern that it does not already own for $30.15 per share in cash.
If the delisting vote fails, shareholders must then vote on whether Great Eastern's shares should resume trading.
Meanwhile, Lum Chang Creations is slated to complete the registration of its offer document on July 9, when it will reveal its offer price, valuation and market capitalisation.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Trump says alignment with Brics' ‘anti-American policies' to invite additional 10% tariffs
Trump says alignment with Brics' ‘anti-American policies' to invite additional 10% tariffs

Straits Times

time31 minutes ago

  • Straits Times

Trump says alignment with Brics' ‘anti-American policies' to invite additional 10% tariffs

Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Brics leaders meeting in Rio de Janeiro say US President Donald Trump's tariffs are 'indiscriminate' and illegal. WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump has said countries aligning themselves with the 'Anti-American policies' of Brics will be charged an additional 10 per cent tariff. 'Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of Brics, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy. Thank you for your attention to this matter!' Mr Trump said in a post on Truth Social. He did not clarify or expand on the 'Anti-American policies' reference in his post. The original Brics group gathered leaders from Brazil, Russia, India and China at its first summit in 2009. The bloc later added South Africa and in 2024 included Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia as members. REUTERS

Trump says tariff letters to go out to other countries on Monday
Trump says tariff letters to go out to other countries on Monday

CNA

time33 minutes ago

  • CNA

Trump says tariff letters to go out to other countries on Monday

President Donald Trump said late on Sunday (Jul 6) that the US will start delivering tariff letters to other countries starting 12pm ET (12am, Tuesday, Singapore time) on Monday. "I am pleased to announce that the United States tariff letters, and/or deals, with various countries from around the world, will be delivered starting 12pm (Eastern), Monday, Jul 7. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" Trump said in a post on Truth Social. Trump had said on Jul 4 that he had signed 12 trade letters ahead of an impending deadline for his tariffs to take effect. "I signed some letters and they'll go out on Monday, probably 12," Trump told reporters, adding that the countries that the letters would be sent to will be announced on the same day. Trump's tariffs were part of a broader announcement in April where he imposed a 10 per cent duty on goods from almost all trading partners, with a plan to step up these rates for a select group within days. But he swiftly paused the hikes until Jul 9, allowing for trade talks to take place. Countries have been pushing to strike deals that would help them avoid these elevated duties. So far, the Trump administration has unveiled deals with the United Kingdom and Vietnam, while Washington and Beijing agreed to temporarily lower staggeringly high levies on each other's products. Trump also said that countries aligning themselves with the "Anti-American policies" of BRICS will be charged an additional 10 per cent tariff. "Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10 per cent Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" Trump said in a post on Truth Social. Trump did not clarify or expand on the "Anti-American policies" reference in his post. The original BRICS group gathered leaders from Brazil, Russia, India and China at its first summit in 2009. The bloc later added South Africa and last year included Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as members. BRICS leaders at a summit on Sunday took aim at and recent Israeli-US strikes on Iran.

Visa's war rooms in Singapore, US and UK take on global cyber criminals
Visa's war rooms in Singapore, US and UK take on global cyber criminals

Straits Times

timean hour ago

  • Straits Times

Visa's war rooms in Singapore, US and UK take on global cyber criminals

Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox - In the heart of Data Centre Alley – a patch of suburban Washington where much of the world's internet traffic flows – Visa operates its global fraud command centre. The payments giant maintains identical facilities in London and Singapore, ensuring 24-hour global vigilance. The numbers that Visa grapples with are enormous. Every year, US$15 trillion (S$19 trillion) flows through its networks, representing roughly 15 per cent of the world's economy. And bad actors constantly try to syphon off some of that money. Modern fraudsters vary dramatically in sophistication. To stay ahead, Visa has invested US$12 billion over the past five years building artificial intelligence-powered cyber fraud detection capabilities, knowing that criminals are also spending big. 'You have everybody from a single individual threat actor looking to make a quick buck all the way to really corporatised criminal organisations that generate tens or hundreds of millions of dollars annually from fraud and scam activities,' Visa's global head of fraud solutions Michael Jabbara told AFP during a tour of the company's security campus in Ashburn, Virginia. 'These organisations are very structured in how they operate.' Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Construction starts on Cross Island Line phase 2; 6 MRT stations in S'pore's west ready by 2032 Singapore New SkillsFuture requirements by April 2026 to mandate regular training for adult educators Singapore MPs should not ask questions to 'clock numbers'; focus should be improving S'poreans' lives: Seah Kian Peng Singapore Sequencing and standards: Indranee on role of Leader of the House Singapore NUS College draws 10,000 applications for 400 places, showing strong liberal arts interest Life Rock band My Chemical Romance to perform in Singapore in April 2026 Singapore Life After... blazing biomedical research trail in S'pore: Renowned scientist breaks new ground at 59 Singapore More students in Singapore juggle studying and working to support their families The best-resourced criminal syndicates now focus on scams that directly target consumers, enticing them into purchases or transactions by manipulating their emotions. 'Consumers are continuously vulnerable. They can be exploited, and that's where we've seen a much higher incidence of attacks recently,' Mr Jabbara said. The most up-to-date fraud techniques are systematic and quietly devastating. Once criminals obtain your card information, they automatically distribute it across numerous merchant websites that generate small recurring charges – amounts low enough that victims may not notice for months. Some of these operations increasingly resemble legitimate tech companies, offering services and digital products to fraudsters much like Google or Microsoft cater to businesses. On the dark web, criminals can purchase comprehensive fraud toolkits. Said Mr Jabbara: 'You can buy the software. You can buy a tutorial on how to use the software. You can get access to a mule network on the ground or you can get access to a bot network to carry out denial-of-service attacks that overwhelm servers with traffic, effectively shutting them down.' Just as cloud computing lowered barriers for start-ups by eliminating the need to build servers, 'the same type of trend has happened in the cyber crime and fraud space', he explained. These off-the-shelf services can also enable bad actors to launch brute force attacks on an industrial scale – using repeated payment attempts to crack a card's number, expiry date and security code. The sophistication extends to corporate-style management, Mr Jabbara said. Some criminal organisations now employ chief risk officers who determine operational risk appetite. They might decide that targeting government infrastructure and hospitals generates an excessive amount of attention from law enforcement and is too risky to pursue. 'Millions of attacks' To combat these unprecedented threats, Mr Jabbara leads a payment scam disruption team focused on understanding criminal methodologies. From a small room called the Risk Operations Centre in Virginia, employees analyse data streams on multiple screens, searching for patterns that distinguish fraudulent activity from legitimate credit card use. In the larger Cyber Fusion Centre, staff monitor potential cyber attacks targeting Visa's own infrastructure around the clock. 'We deal with millions of attacks across different parts of our network,' Mr Jabbara noted, emphasising that most are handled automatically without human intervention. AFP

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store