Stocks in Asia Pacific rose in Tuesday morning trade as investors await the release of China’s official manufacturing Purchasing Manager’s Index. The Nikkei 225 in Japan rose 1.75% in early trade, following its more than 2% slide on Monday. The Topix index also added 1.5%. In South Korea, the Kospi gained 1.39%. Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia added 0.66%. Overall, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index traded 0.33% higher. Investors await the release of China’s official manufacturing PMI for June, set to be released around 9:00 a.m. HK/SIN on Tuesday. Economists in a Reuters poll have a median forecast of 50.4 for the data print, above the 50 level that indicates expansion in activity.

SINGAPORE Press Holdings (SPH), which publishes The Business Times, is setting up a joint venture (JV) with Keppel Corporation to develop and operate data centre facilities at SPH's Genting Lane property. In a regulatory filing yesterday, SPH announced that it will hold 40 per cent of the JV company, named Memphis 1, while units of Keppel will hold the remaining 60 per cent.

DBS on Monday launched a sustainable and transition finance framework and taxonomy, as it partners clients from key industries to transition to a low-carbon economy. The lender said it is the first Singapore bank to offer transition financing with its latest framework. It will evaluate the transitional qualities of the economic activities, and whether its clients have a strategy to adapt their businesses to be in line with the Paris Agreement.

LUXURY watch retailer The Hour Glass Group has clocked its best performance to date, having reported earnings of S$76.2 million for the full year ended March 31. The listed retailer's net profit rose 8 per cent year on year, helped by stronger income in the first half of the financial year. In a regulatory filing on Monday, the company's financial statements showed that after-tax profit jumped 26 per cent in the six months to last September. But in the second half of FY2020, net profit weakened by 3 per cent

ASCOTT Residence Trust (ART) has announced the reset distribution rate of 3.07 per cent for the S$250 million perpetual issue that it has decided against redeeming on its first call date tomorrow. This rate is lower than the 4.68 per cent when the issue was launched, but marginally higher than what analysts had earlier estimated.

HH Healthcare sank into the red for the first quarter to March, weighed down by impairment on an investment in India and foreign currency translation losses. The Malaysia-registered hospital operator, which is dual-listed on both sides of the Causeway, reported a loss of RM319.8 million (S$104.3 million) for the FY2020 first quarter, against earnings of RM89.5 million a year ago. Loss per share was 3.9 sen, versus earnings per share of 0.78 sen for the preceding year.

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