Oil futures were up more than 1 per cent on Thursday as tensions in the Middle East grew, with a Saudi-led coalition launching air strikes in retaliation for recent attacks on its crude infrastructure. Brent crude futures settled at US$72.62 a barrel, up 85 US cents, or 1.18 per cent, after touching their highest level in three weeks. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled at US$62.87 a barrel, gaining 81 cents, or 1.37 per cent, after hitting its strongest level in two weeks.

Singapore Airlines  reported a 28 per cent drop in fourth-quarter net profit to S$202.6 million from S$281.1 million a year ago on the back of weaker operating performance and a jump in non-operating costs related mainly to SilkAir's re-fleeting and restructuring. Revenue grew 1.4 per cent to S$4.08 billion from S$4.02 billion a year ago, which was partially offset by higher net fuel cost - this was up 8 per cent - and non-fuel costs on capacity injection. Non-fuel costs increased 2.1 per cent, below the group's passenger capacity growth of 8 per cent.

Malaysia's economic growth slowed in the first quarter, dragged down by weaker trade and investment in the export-reliant nation. Gross domestic product expanded 4.5 per cent from a year ago, down from 4.7 per cent in the fourth quarter, the central bank said in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 22 economists was for growth of 4.3 per cent.

Baidu on Thursday reported lower-than-expected first-quarter earnings and forecast quarterly revenue below estimates, sending its shares down 8 per cent in extended trading. Revenue from its online marketing services business, a major contributor to overall sales, rose nearly 3 per cent to 17.66 billion yuan (US$2.57 billion or S$3.52 billion), but missed estimates of US$2.66 billion, according to research firm FactSet.

Source: SGX Masnet, The Business Times, Bloomberg, Channel NewsAsia, Reuters, PSR