Wall Street stocks finished solidly lower on Thursday, resuming a downward trend from recent sessions as a US relief package suffered another setback in Congress. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index was again the biggest loser among major indices, finishing down 2.0 per cent at 10,919.59. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.5 per cent to 27,534.58, while the broad-based S&P 500 tumbled 1.8 per cent to 3,339.19 after a morning that saw them open in positive territory but lose steam throughout the day.

"Investors are wondering whether the technology sector can continue to deliver for the overall market," said TD Ameritrade's J.J. Kinahan.

Reeling from the impact of the pandemic, the Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group is shedding 4,300 jobs as it seeks to right-size its airlines for a post-Covid world. In a filing to the Singapore Exchange on Thursday evening, the flag carrier said that about 2,400 staff in Singapore and abroad could be hit by the job cuts, after taking into account a recruitment freeze, natural attrition and voluntary-departure schemes, which account for 1,900 positions. SIA, SilkAir and Scoot employed over 21,000 employees at the end of the previous financial year.

The manager of Ascendas Reit on Thursday said the real estate investment trust (Reit) will redeem at par all the outstanding securities of its S$300 million, 4.75 per cent perpetual securities. It will do so on Oct 14, the first call date. Payment will be made to the Central Depository (CDP) on the same day, to those who hold the securities as at 5pm on Oct 7 according to the CDP records. Following that, the securities will be cancelled and delisted from the Singapore bourse.

GSH Corporation has priced its S$30 million two-year notes at a fixed annual interest rate of 5.20 per cent, it said on Thursday. The notes are expected to be issued on Sept 17 and will mature on Oct 21, 2022. They form Tranche 2 of GSH's Series 4 notes due 2022 under the company's S$800 million, multicurrency, medium-term note programme established in 2016. This issuance will be consolidated with the first S$50 million tranche of Series 4 notes, also due 2022, which were issued last October.

Semiconductor play AEM Holdings revised its FY2020 revenue guidance upwards on Thursday to between S$480 million and S$500 million. It had, in its H1 2020 results announcement, pegged it at between S$460 million and S$480 million. The company said the latest revision is based on sales-order visibility and business outlook. Capital expenditure is to remain unchanged at about S$4 million.

CapitaLand's wholly-owned lodging business unit, The Ascott, has opened a 108-unit serviced residence in London's Islington district. Citadines Islington London sits on a piece of prime property Ascott acquired in 2016 through its serviced residence global fund with Qatar Investment Authority, Ascott said in a statement on Thursday. The serviced residence, delivered by real estate investment firm Cain International, is located in Islington Square, a new heritage site offering "eclectic" shops and cafes, it added.

Specialist engineering services firm Acromec is teaming up with Nutura Investment to build, own and operate a waste-to-energy plant in Neo Tiew Road in Lim Chu Kang. Acromec said on Thursday that its 80-per-cent owned subsidiary Acropower has entered into agreements with Nutura to formalise a joint venture and implement it through a joint-venture company called Neo Tiew Power. The joint venture will come into effect when the customary conditions precedent are satisfied or waived, and the joint-venture company enters into a purchase order to buy and transfer the waste-to-energy plant from Acropower to Neo Tiew Power.

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