Asian stocks looked set to gain Tuesday as U.S. stock futures moved higher in overnight trading and pointed to gains at the open on Tuesday, as investors eye earnings reports from some of the nation's largest banks. Futures pointed to modest gains in Tokyo and Hong Kong, despite the late sell-off on Wall street as the rising number of coronavirus cases continued to weigh.

City Developments Ltd (CDL) said it expected the group’s pre-tax profit for the first half this year to reduce "substantially" from a year ago, dragged by its hotel operations segment amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. Based on preliminary estimates, revenue per available room is expected to decline by about 50% to 60% for H1 2020. It added that “The near-term outlook continues to remain highly challenging and uncertain until the pandemic situation abates together with the reopening of international borders,” CDL expects to release its unaudited half-year results in early August.

Ascott Residence Trust’s (ART) distribution per stapled security (DPS) for the six months ended June 30 is expected to fall by 65% to 75% from the 3.43 Singapore cents recorded in the first half of 2019. The stapled group's financial performance is expected to be "adversely impacted" due to the unprecedented disruption brought by the novel coronavirus pandemic, the managers said. The managers of ART said the stapled group has sufficient liquidity to meet its operational needs and financial commitments.

Cromwell European REIT  has signed a heads of terms agreement with its sponsor and Stratus Data Centres, to co-invest directly into 50% stakes in two European data centre projects, subject to various milestones. The first project is a two-stage, 100 megawatt (MW) data centre serving London. The six acre (2.4 hectare) site is located on fibre-optic routes in the east of London, and will be powered by renewable energy. Negotiations with potential tenant operators are “well advanced”, and construction is expected to be completed in 2021.

SIA and SilkAir have increased the frequency for existing routes even though they are not adding new destinations in July and August. The group's passenger capacity in July and August will reach about 6% and 7% of its pre-Covid-19 levels respectively. All flights are subject to regulatory approvals, and schedules are subject to changes, the group said.

Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) expects significantly lower operating profit for FY20 ending August 31 than the S$187 million recorded in the year ago period on the back of the ongoing pandemic. Against such a backdrop, it is also expecting a negative outcome for the revaluation of its investment properties as at August 31, 2020. Across its business segments, the media business was hurt the most due to decline in print advertisements. While circulation was up, it would only partially offset the fall in print advertisements, said SPH. It added that the severe Covid-19 impact on advertising revenue, which accounts for most of media's revenue, is expected to persist.

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