Futures were up more than 1% in Japan and Hong Kong, while Australian shares opened higher. S&P 500 contracts slipped after the gauge rebounded from its worse loss since October. Trading platforms restricted activity in stocks whipsawed by internet chatrooms, from GameStop Corp. to AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. Hedge funds that had shorted the shares were burned in recent days, forcing them to reduce holdings to lower risk levels. Treasuries retreated, pushing the yield on 10-year notes up to 1.05%.

All 11 industry groups in the S&P 500 traded higher, with sentiment also boosted by solid corporate earnings from the likes of Mastercard Inc. and Comcast Corp. and a surprise drop in jobless claims. Still, oil declined the most in nearly a week with the spread of new Covid-19 variants and tighter lockdown measures weighing on nascent hopes of a demand recovery.

Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust (MNACT) reported that its net property income (NPI) jumped 49 per cent to S$75.7 million for the third quarter ended Dec 31, 2020, in a business update after trading hours on Thursday. Gross revenue for the period rose 49.7 per cent to S$100.7 million, primarily because there was no rental collection for Q3 FY19/20 during the temporary closure of Festival Walk mall in Hong Kong from Nov 13, 2019 to Jan 15, 2020 and its office tower from Nov 13 to 25, 2019.

In a business update, Frasers Hospitality Trust's (FHT) manager said that it is confident in the long-term fundamentals of the markets it has presence in - Singapore, Australia, UK, Japan, Malaysia and Germany - and will continue to prepare for the eventual recovery of international tourism. "Given the sizeable domestic tourism markets in Australia, Japan and the UK, a rebound in domestic tourism is likely to help FHT's properties in these countries recover sooner than the rest of its portfolio," it said.

OUE Commercial Real Estate Investment Trust (OUE C-Reit) on Thursday posted a distribution per unit (DPU) of 1.43 Singapore cents for the second half of the fiscal year ended December 2020, down 12.3 per cent from 1.63 Singapore cents in the year-ago period. As a result, the Reit's FY 2020 DPU came in at 2.43 Singapore cents, some 26.6 per cent lower than 3.31 Singapore cents a year ago.

Keppel Corporation said on Thursday that it will be restructuring its subsidiary Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M) into a slimmer, more asset-light one, with Keppel O&M to exit the offshore rig building business after completing existing rigs under construction. This was announced alongside Keppel’s second-half FY2020 results, where it recorded a net profit of S$31.3 million for its second-half ended Dec 31, 2020, down 91.1 per cent from a year ago on the back of decreased contributions across segments, with Energy & Environment hard-hit in particular.

Beer and liquor giant Thai Beverage Public Co (ThaiBev)'s brewery unit is heading for a listing on the Singapore Exchange (SGX), Bloomberg reported. The report cited sources with knowledge of the matter that the company is seeking a valuation of about US$10 billion for the unit, with the listing possibly taking place as soon as the second quarter.

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