U.S. equity futures edged higher and Treasury contracts were steady as investors scrutinized President-elect Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief plan. Asian stocks looked set for a muted start. S&P 500 futures nudged up after the benchmark surrendered gains late in the session to end modestly lower. Technology, communication services and consumer discretionary sectors were the biggest losers. After the market closed, the details of Biden’s proposal were released, including a wave of new spending, more direct payments to households, an expansion of jobless benefits and an enlargement of vaccinations and virus-testing programs.

Futures were flat in Hong Kong and Japan, while Australian shares opened higher. Treasury yields rose in the Thursday session and the dollar weakened.

Mainboard-listed Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (Holdings) has inked a deal to set up a liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply chain joint venture, the board said on Thursday. Its wholly-owned Yangzijiang Terminals China Holding subsidiary will cough up six million yuan (S$1.23 million) for a 30 per cent stake in the three-way joint venture. Joint-venture company Jiangsu Run Yuan Energy Co will build LNG storage facilities, undertake trade in natural gas and carry out businesses in other parts of the LNG supply chain, said the bourse filing.

The financials of Mainboard-listed property player Lian Beng Group took a hit in the first half-year, as Covid-19 restrictions hammered the construction segment. Net profit fell 5.2 per cent year on year to S$17.6 million for the six months to Nov 30, 2020, while revenue tumbled by 36.6 per cent to S$197.5 million. The drag came on work suspension during the circuit-breaker period, as well as labour supply disruptions, its results released on Thursday indicated.

The Singapore High Court on Thursday granted a three-month extension on the judicial management order to restructure Singapore's troubled oil trader Hin Leong Trading (HLT), subject to certain conditions, sources said. This follows an application by HLT's judicial managers (JMs) for more time, as the judicial management order granted at the beginning of August last year was set to expire on Feb 3, 2021.

Seventeen parties are interested in the embattled Hyflux and have signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to explore investment, judicial managers (JMs) Borrelli Walsh told perpetual and preference share, as well as medium-term note holders on Thursday. These parties include previously known ones such as American fund manager Strategic Growth Investments (SGI), Spain-based FCC Aqualia and Middle Eastern utility firm Utico. Pison, backed by Indonesian magnate Johnny Widjaja, and Singapore-listed developer OUE have pulled out.

Catalist-listed SLB Development's earnings held steady in the first half-year on profit contributions from its associates, according to unaudited results on Thursday. Net profit ticked up by 0.9 per cent year on year, to S$5.54 million for the six months to Nov 30, 2020, even as revenue slipped 4.9 per cent to S$19.0 million on a slowdown in construction work amid Covid-19 safe management measures at project sites. The bottom line was buoyed by the share of results from joint ventures and associates, which came to S$1.54 million, reversing the loss of S$592,000 previously.

KrisEnergy creditors approved its debt restructuring in a court meeting on Thursday, the upstream oil-and-gas company announced in a bourse filing. The company "will now press ahead" with the last two steps of its four-stage restructuring, which involve zero coupon note holders and shareholders, said chief executive Kelvin Tang in the statement. The creditor vote was the second stage, following an earlier move to extend KrisEnergy's revolving credit facility maturity date to June 30, 2024.

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