Indian Rupee (INR) has appreciated 8% versus SGD subsequent to announcement of financial reforms by the Indian government. SingTel has significant exposure to Indian rupee through Bharti which contributes 12-15% of its earnings.n Bharti has foreign net debt of US$12bn, majority of which is in USD. Indian rupee appreciation could result in significant translation gains at Bharti of US$500m-1bn. SingTel has one-third stake in Bharti, so SingTel's FY13F (Mar YE) earnings may benefit by US$170m-350m or about 5%-10% from the appreciation. While Bharti's earnings fundamentals are not great, those are captured in street estimates already.

Besides SingTel, Ascendas India Trust should also benefit from the appreciation of the rupee vs SGD. AIT's exposure to INR movements is through translation movements for its distribution income. The INR had recently strengthened to INR42.5 against the SGD from a recent low of INR45. If sustained at these levels, there could be upside risks to our projected AIT distribution income. The current exchange rate assumed in our estimates is an average rate of INR44 for FY13 and INR42 for FY14.

Vanguard Group Inc., the largest U.S. mutual-fund company that manages about $1.95 trillion in U.S. mutual fund assets, has dropped MSCI as benchmark provider for 22 of its index funds, and switched to FTSE benchmarks in a move to cut costs. In terms of impact on Singapore, stocks most negatively affected are the banks, as their weightings are smaller in FTSE, and also Keppel Corp and SingTel. Beneficiaries are stocks like Capita Commercial Trust, Venture Corp, Singapore Post and SMRT, which are FTSE component stocks but not included in MSCI Spore Index.

Kreuz Holdingswill transfer its listing to the Main Board of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (SGX-ST) on October 8, 2012. Trading of the Company's shares on the Main Board will commence at 9 am on October 8, 2012.

King Wan Corp had secured five mechanical and electrical (M&E) contracts worth $30.77m since August 2012. The new contracts consist of three HDB projects located at Bukit Panjang, Bukit Batok and Sembawang as well as two condominium projects, which are expected to be completed progressively from 2014 to 2015. In addition, the group's 35% associate, together with Hock Lian Seng, has been awarded the tender by the Urban Redevelopment Board for a residential site at Dairy Farm Road at a tender price of $244.32m. The partners are now looking into the possibility of developing the site into a mid-range condominium of about 400 units.

China Oriental Group is likely to incur a loss in the third quarter of 2012. The performance of the Group in the fourth quarter of 2012 will not improve significantly if steel prices and operational environment for the steel manufacturing further deteriorate or do not improve. In light of this, the Group is likely to experience a significant decline in profit or may even incur a loss in the second half of 2012 as compared to the profit made in 2H 2011.

China's services sector weakened sharply in September to its lowest point since November 2010, as slow growth in manufacturing finally began to feed through to the rest of the economy. The official purchasing managers' index (PMI) for the sector fell to 53.7 in September from 56.3 in August, weighed by weakened construction services and transport as well as lacklustre new orders.

Source: DBSV