Singapore shares rose this week as investors kept tabs on trade talks between Washington and its trading partners. The Straits Times Index (STI), a key benchmark for the Singapore Exchange, ended 2.07% higher compared to last week.
In terms of individual stocks, Singapore Land rose 15%; YZJ Shipbldg rose 13%; DBS Group rose over 6%; Sembcorp Industries tumbled nearly 12%.
Singapore Land's Attributable Profit Jumps 7% in H1; Shares Up 15%
Singapore Land's net attributable profit surged 7% in the first half of the year to SG$111.4 million from SG$103.7 million a year earlier, according to a Thursday filing with the Singapore Exchange.
Earnings per share rose to SG$0.072 compared with SG$0.068 in the comparable period.
Revenue was up 8% year over year to SG$368.3 million from SG$341.9 million, due to stronger contributions from property investments and technology operations.
Shares of the property developer were up more than 15% this week.
Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Soars 13% on Record-High Half-Year Profit
Shares of Yangzijiang Shipbuilding surged over 13% this week, following the company's announcement of record-breaking financial results for the first half of fiscal year 2025.
Yangzijiang Shipbuilding reported a remarkable 36.7% year-on-year increase in net profit, reaching 4.2 billion yuan (S$752.6 million) for the six months ended June 30. This stellar performance was achieved despite a slight 1.3% dip in revenue to 12.9 billion yuan.
Notably, the company's net profit margin expanded significantly, rising to 32.5% from 23.4% in the same period last year, while earnings per share climbed to 1.0602 yuan from 0.7742 yuan.
DBS Shares Crosses $50 Following Target Price Upgrades
DBS Group gained 6.6% this week to stay above $50 following a series of target price upgrades after yesterday's 1HFY2025 report card.
"DBS surprised with a good set of results," says Carmen Lee of OCBC Investment Research, who raised her fair value from $50 to $54.
In its 2QFY2025 ended June 30, earnings reached $2.82 billion, higher than expectations of $2.78 billion.
Thilan Wickramasinghe observes that DBS was able to generate above-market trend growth across all pillars.
Centurion Falls over 3% Despite Posting H1 Profit and Dividend
Centurion Corporation saw its stock price plummet by more than 3% this week, despite reporting positive half-year results and declaring an interim dividend. The sharp decline suggests that the company's financial performance may have fallen short of market expectations.
According to the company's latest financial report released on Thursday, Centurion posted a revenue of SGD 140.722 million for the first half of the year. The company also reported a gross profit of SGD 108.6 million, with a impressive gross margin of 77.2%. Furthermore, the profit attributable to shareholders reached S$73.9 million for the period.
In an effort to reward shareholders, Centurion declared an interim dividend of 2.0 Singapore cents per share. However, this announcement seems to have done little to prevent the stock's decline. The market's negative reaction could indicate that investors were anticipating even stronger results or had concerns about the company's future outlook, despite the solid performance in the first half of the year.
Sembcorp Industries Plummets 12% as Half-Yearly Profit Dips
Sembcorp Industries' attributable profit fell 1% during the first half of the year to SG$536 million from SG$543 million a year earlier, according to a Friday filing with the Singapore Exchange.
Earnings per share fell to SG$0.2973 compared with SG$0.3008 in the comparable period. Analysts polled by Visible Alpha had projected earnings per share of SG$0.16 for the period.
Turnover declined 8% year over year to SG$2.94 billion from SG$3.21 billion. Analysts polled by Visible Alpha had projected a revenue of SG$3.46 billion.
The company declared an interim ordinary dividend of SG$0.09 per share for the period. Shares of the engineering services company plunged nearly 12% this week.