STI should take a breather following the gains made in the previous session, in line with the mixed overnight performance on Wall Street. The underlying tone should stay firm heading of Friday's employment number after the February ADP employment change data released last night came in stronger-than-expected, 198k against 170k consensus. The previous month's figure was also revised higher to 215k from 192k. Consensus expectation for tomorrow's non-farm payrolls is 163k.

We expected 2013 to be the "Year of Acquisitions" for the S-REITs but the pace has surprised us. YTD, S$852m worth of deals have been concluded, partly funded by close to S$452m of equity fund raisings. Buoyed by supportive equity markets and strong balance sheets, we sense that S-REITs' appetite for acquisitions remains strong and believe that developer-sponsored REITs can opportunistically tap their pipelines for growth. Rising bond yields have limited impact on SREITs as growth is being priced in. Our preferred picks are Fraser Commercial Trust (FCOT, BUY TP $1.45) and Cache Logistics Trust (Cache, BUY, TP S$1.40). Far East Hospitality Trust(FEHT, BUY, TP S$1.13) is trading close to our target price but an upgrade is likely if the trust delivers higher than expected returns.

Global Logistic Properties has signed approximately 15,000 sqm (162,000 sq ft) of new leases with a third party logistics provider in Changzhou, Eastern China. With the new lease, the occupancy rate for GLP Park CND, GLP's first development in Changzhou, has reached 97% within three months of its completion.

SBI Offshore is placing 34m new shares at an issue price of S$0.108 per share. The Placement Price represents a discount of approximately 10% to the last weighted average price. The net proceeds of about S$3.6m will be used for market expansion and business development plans when opportunities arise.

Mencast Holdingsis re-evaluating the basis for the proposed (1) Bonus Share for every one (1) Share held as one of the listing rule (Rule 838 of the SGX-ST Listing Manual) requires the company to ensure that its daily weighted average price, adjusted for a bonus issue, is not less than S$0.50.

Three companies have been added to the watch-list of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) for failing to meet the minimum criteria for continued listing. They are precision steel strips manufacturer Yong Xin International Holdings, specialty chemicals producer Matex International, and China Oilfield Tech, a solutions provider of integrated tertiary oil recovery equipment and products. They have posted pre-tax losses for three straight years and the 120-day average market value of their stock failed to stay above $40m.

GSH Corp has unveiled plans to raise another $246.8m in net proceeds through a rights issue. This, just two weeks after the Lippo group's Golden Super Holdings and a private-equity fund, SkyVen Growth Opportunities Fund, invested $37.54m in GSH via a stock placement, most of which will go towards prospective merger and acquisition (M&A) opportunities. The renounceable and non-underwritten issue of up to 4.94 bn rights shares priced at 5 cents apiece will be on the basis of one rights share for every one existing share held. The issue price is a 42.5% discount to the stock's theoretical ex-rights price of 8.7 cents per share, based on its closing price of 12.4 cents on Tuesday.

In property news, the freehold Kovan Lodge has been put up for collective sale through tender. The asking price is a tad below $30m, or around $790 psf of potential gross floor area. No development charge is payable. Under the 2008 Master Plan, the 27,090 sq ft site is zoned for residential use. The current asking price for Kovan Lodge is lower than the $31.5mn that its owners had sought in an earlier launch last year.

Source: DBSV