Wall Street stocks finished with solid gains on Wednesday as the market embraced data from New York and other coronavirus hotspots that suggested the outbreak was leveling off. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 3.4 per cent, or around 780 points, to 23,433.57. The broad-based S&P 500 also gained 3.4 per cent to 2,749.98, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 2.6 per cent to 8,090.90.

Stocks were in positive territory all day, picking up momentum after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the state had suffered 779 fatalities over the last day, a new record, but that the hospitalisation rate was continuing to decrease because of social confinement orders.

Oil futures strengthened late in the session on Wednesday, buoyed by hopes that Opec and its allies will strike a production cut agreement on Thursday.

Broadway Industrial Group was hit with a fresh query by the bourse regulator over trading activity on Wednesday, its third one in nine months. The group's shares climbed 32.8 per cent, or 2.1 Singapore cents, to close at 8.5 Singapore cents on Wednesday. A total of 36.3 million shares changed hands.

The board of directors and top executives at Starhill Global Reit (SGReit)’s manager will take paycuts in light of the Covid-19 situation, the savings of which will be passed on to unitholders as part of a 10-per-cent reduction in base management fees payable by SGReit for the next three months from April.

Sunningdale Tech has obtained approval from the Ministry of Trade and Industry to continue its Singapore operations during the circuit-breaker period that lasts at least till May 4.

China Haida said in a statement on Wednesday that it has come to its attention that two bank accounts of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Jiangyin Litai Ornamental Materials Co, have been frozen following an interim court order issued by a Sichuan court. A third bank account has been restricted.

HYFLUX on Tuesday filed urgent applications in the High Court to postpone the scheme meetings scheduled to take place on April 22 and 23, in view of the enhanced measures by the Singapore government to battle the Covid-19 outbreak.

HG METAL Manufacturing's wholly-owned subsidiary HG Construction Steel has received approval from the Ministry of Trade and Industry to be exempted from the Suspension of Workplace Activities order that will last till May 4.

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