U.S. equity futures fell at the open Monday after deaths around the world from the coronavirus topped half a million and infections continued to mount in American states. Crude oil fell. S&P 500 futures opened about 0.6% down and contracts in Japan and Australia pointed lower. In currencies, the Australian dollar saw a modest decline. Providing some comfort was data over the weekend providing more signs the Chinese economy is continuing to recover from its shutdown. Chinese markets reopen after a two-day holiday.

ASCENDAS Reit (A-Reit) estimates that rent waivers provided to its tenants in Singapore year to date amount to less than S$20 million. The actual amount to be disbursed will depend on tenants' eligibility assessment by the authorities. This amount is in addition to the Singapore government’s property tax rebates and cash grants which the trust will fully pass through to eligible tenants.

CapitaLand CEO Lee Chee Koon says pandemic has shown importance of healthy balance sheet, good leaders, effective strategies and tight team. Economic slowdowns in its core markets will have an impact on CapitaLand's performance for the first half of this year, but the Singapore property heavyweight is working on strengthening its position so it emerges ahead of the competition after the pandemic. It is incorporating digital solutions into the slate of services it offers to its tenants and is looking out for investment opportunities that will boost the resilience of its portfolio.

DASIN Retail Trust on Friday launched a private placement to raise gross proceeds of up to S$94 million to partially fund its proposed acquisition of two malls in China's Guangdong province. The trust will issue a maximum of 120.5 million new units at an issue price of between S$0.78 and S$0.80 per new unit. The issue price range represents a discount of about 6 per cent and 3.6 per cent respectively to the trust's volume-weighted average price of S$0.83 per unit for trades done on June 25.

TRANSPORT giant ComfortDelGro said in regulatory update on Friday that it is expecting to report a net loss for the first half of 2020 on the back of the significant impact of Covid-19 on the company's operations. it also said that it faces the possibility of impairment of investments in certain local and overseas subsidiaries.

SINGAPORE Airlines announced on Friday that it will record a total one-off charge of S$123.6 million for the first quarter ending June 30,  following the likely liquidation of NokScoot, a 49-per-cent-owned associated company of Scoot Tigerair. This comprises a S$106.9 million charge, mainly due to impairment of SIA’s book value of seven Boeing 777-200 aircraft which had been leased to NokScoot, and provisions by Scoot of S$16.7 million to cover its share of liquidation and related costs.

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