Cyprus gets saved but the devil is in the details. It comes at the expense of a deposit levy on depositors with more than €100K, senior bond holders taking losses and uninsured depositors mostly wiped out. The news is a relief but nothing beyond with US and European equity indices erasing initial gains. While many of the large depositors are Russians that can be classified as professionals rather than the "mums and pops", the bailout raises questions about how future crisis will be handled or whether there will be a depositors' flight among the other Eurozone nations.

HPH Trust will replace F&N on the FTSE STI with effect from April 3. F&N will be removed from the index amid uncertainty over the future listing status.

Inflation surged to an eight-month high of 4.9% in February, higher than market expectation of a 4.1% rise and up from January's 3.6% inflation rate. This was mainly due to January's record-high vehicle certificate of entitlement (COE) premiums, as well as a seasonal Chinese New Year hike in food prices.

The 17.4% y-o-y jump in private road transport costs alone -up from a 10.5% rise in January - made up more than two-thirds of the 1.3 percentage point increase in February's inflation. Food prices rose 2.3% in February, up from one per cent in January, a reflection of reversed base effects since Chinese New Year was in February this year but in January last year. Core inflation measure, which strips costs of private road transport and accommodation out, rose to 1.9% in February from 1.2% in January, on account of stronger food and services inflation.

Swissco has diversified its business model to move higher up the value chain and into the oil rig sector. It has incorporated a special purpose vehicle with two partners, predominantly to enter into engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts for oil rigs. Swissco will hold a 46.5% stake in the SPV, Rockwood Asset Holdings, and its partners Golden Arch Worldwide Offshore and Pulau Investments will hold 45.3% and 8.2% respectively.

Tiong Seng Holdingshas been awarded a total of S$223.4m worth of contracts by SP Setia for a condominium housing development, Eco Sanctuary, and a terrace housing project, The Springside, by Kallang Development. These new projects will boost order book to S$1.47 bn. This is the first time Tiong Seng will be working with both developers, an affirmation of the Group's growing influence in the construction industry.

Lian Beng Grouphas clinched a new contract worth $220m for the construction of Bartley Ridge. With this deal, the group's order book stands at about $884m. Bartley Ridge, a 99-year leasehold project along Mount Vernon Road, comprises eight 18-storey and one 19-storey residential towers with penthouses. There are 868 units in all. The average per sq ft prices for the unit types range from $930 to $1,350.

BBR Holdings has secured yet another S$102.8m contract from the Housing and Development Board (HDB) to build a total of 755 units at the Kallang Whampoa area in Singapore. This is the fifth HDB contract won by the Group since its first in 2009. Its order book now stands at more than S$1.12 bn with projects lasting to 2016.

KLW Holdings is proposing to undertake a renounceable non-underwritten rights issue of up to 1,220.1m new shares at the issue price of S$0.01 for each Rights Share, on the basis of one (1) Rights Share for every one (1) existing share held. The Issue Price represents a discount of approximately 50% to the last transacted price. The net proceeds of approximately S$12.15m will be mainly used for funding acquisition opportunities and business growth in new businesses.

Driven by travel during the Chinese New Year holidays last month, passenger movements at Singapore's Changi Airport jumped 9.2% y-o-y to 4.12m. Air-traffic movements grew 4.2% to 25,900 flights. Among the airport's top 10 country markets, traffic between Singapore and Australia, China, Hong Kong and Japan grew by more than 10% last month.

Source: DBSV