US markets gave up early session gains to find moderately lower ahead of Thursday's public holiday and Friday's jobs numbers. The June ADP employment number will be released tonight (consensus 160k, previous 135k) as well as the ISM non-manufacturing number (consensus 54). A little 'wait & see' given the gains achieved in recent sessions. Investors also await the start of the 2Q results season after this week's heavy economic numbers. US aluminium producer Alcoa releases 2Q earnings early next week. 

For Singapore's STI, the rebound that started from 3065 last month should be capped at 3220 (38.2% upward retracement) in the short-term, which is moderately below the 13.9x (average) 12-mth forward PE (currently at 3287) given the macro uncertainty and a general lack of positive anticipation heading into the 2Q results season. Yesterday's pullback off 3186 coincided with a 'downside gap' from 3208-3186 formed on June 20th. 

Global Logistics Properties will lease 23,000 square metres of space in its facilities in Beijing and Chengdu to Chinese e-commerce firm Lefeng. The online retailer will use 18,000 sq m of space in GLP Park Beijing ACL as its national distribution centre for apparel, and another 5,000 sq m in GLP Park Chengdu Hi-tech for a regional distribution centre for central and south-western China.

Petra Foods has completed the sale of its cocoa ingredients division to Zurich-based chocolate manufacturer Barry Callebaut. The sale proceeds, subject to final post-completion adjustments, were estimated at US$860m. With the completion of the acquisition, Petra aims to focus on its branded consumer division, which in the first-quarter achieved a gross profit margin of 32.5%.

Asiamedic will start Singapore's third private cord blood bank in a joint venture backed by Indian conglomerate RJ Corp chairman Ravi Jaipura and Modern Montessori International Group chairman T Chandroo. Asiamedic will have an initial 25% stake in the joint venture company, Cryoviva Singapore. AsiaMedic said that it has the option to raise its stake to 49% within two years following the incorporation of the JV company, based on fair-market price. It will start operations in 2014. Singapore has two other cord blood stem cell banks, StemCord and Cordlife Group.

Sinjia Land has entered into a non-binding Letter of Intent to participate in the first phase of a mixed development project in Medini Iskandar Malaysia. The first phase of the Proposed Participation has an estimated gross development value of approximately RM500m. In total, the estimated gross development value of the entire mixed development project in Medini, Iskandar Malaysia, is approximately RM2.5 bn.

ISDN Holdings has through its 80% ownership of PT Potensia Tomini Energi (PTPTE), been invited by the Governor of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia to develop a 126 megawatt (MW) hydropower plant at the Laa River in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. This is the biggest hydropower project to be undertaken by ISDN. Pre-feasibility studies show Laa river has the potential to generate 936 GWh per year.

Triyards has secured its first ship repair contract for the newly commissioned floating dock. The group is on track to grow its ship repair into a significant business and diversify its earnings streams.

Companies here are modestly optimistic about their prospects in the third quarter of this year, going by the latest Business Optimism Index (BOI) from Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) Singapore. Overall, across all the six business indicators measured, the service sector emerged the most optimistic. Manufacturing and construction tied for second place, which D&B Singapore attributed to increased pharmaceutical and electronics production, healthy infrastructure investment and upcoming public housing projects.

Source: DBSV