Asian stocks looked set to slip Friday after news broke late in the U.S. session that a Covid-19 vaccine roll-out is facing near-term supply-chain hurdles. The dollar retreated. Futures slipped in Japan and Australia, while the S&P 500 turned lower after the Pfizer reports. Sentiment was also hit by news that California will lock down its economy if its critical-care capacity reaches its limit. The Nasdaq Composite eked out a gain to close at an all-time high. Treasuries ticked higher.

Credit Bureau Asia (CBA) began its trading debut at S$1.15 on the Singapore Exchange’s (SGX) mainboard on Thursday, 23.7 per cent or S$0.22 above its initial public offering (IPO) price of S$0.93 per share. The company on Wednesday evening announced that its public offering of 1.5 million shares had been subscribed 60.8 times, with "strong interest" for its 28.5 million placement shares from institutional and other investors.

Moody's Investors Service has affirmed Thai Beverage Public Company's "Baa3" issuer rating, while changing the rating outlook from "negative" to "stable". Annalisa DiChiara, Moody's senior vice-president, said: "The 'Baa3' rating affirmation and change in rating outlook to 'stable' from 'negative' reflects the resiliency of ThaiBev's operations, underpinned by its leading market position in the domestic alcohol segment - particularly for spirits - which has continued to support its solid cash flow generation."

City Developments Limited's (CDL) subsidiary Millennium & Copthorne Hotels announced on Thursday that its hotels in Singapore and London have had a jump in bookings for staycations and its restaurants on robust domestic demand ahead of the year-end festive season and Chinese New Year next year. Singapore hotels under M&C recorded bookings for 31,480 room nights from August to November, up nearly sevenfold from 4,698 room nights in the four months prior.

Hong Lai Huat Group is proposing to undertake a renounceable non-underwritten rights issue to raise up to S$26.9 million to partly finance its second mixed-use development project in Phnom Penh. It proposes to issue up to 295.91 million new ordinary shares on the basis of four rights shares for every three existing ordinary shares held by shareholders at an issue price of S$0.091 per rights share.

Investment holding company LionGold Corp is proposing to issue up to S$10 million of 10 per cent unlisted and redeemable convertible bonds, comprising 10 tranches of S$1 million each. The bonds - which will be consolidated to form a single series - are due two years after the date of the first tranche's issuance. The bonds will bear interest at a rate of 10 per cent per annum, payable annually.

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