Reuters: Hot Stocks: STOCKS NEWS SINGAPORE-Index eases slightly, dragged by banks

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STOCKS NEWS SINGAPORE-Index eases slightly, dragged by banks Sep 24th 2012, 05:58 Mon Sep 24, 2012 1:58am EDT Singapore shares were slightly down at midday, dragged by three banks that are also index heavyweights -- Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Ltd, DBS Group Holdings Ltd and United Overseas Bank Ltd. The Straits Times Index eased 0.15 percent at 3,073.64 points, while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.3 percent. UOB shares declined as much as 1.7 percent, OCBC gave up as much as 1.2 percent, while DBS lost as much as 1 percent. CIMB Research said net interest margin pressure came from non-deposit funding and competitive lending yields in the second quarter of 2012, but this is moving to deposit funding costs. "Foreign banks have chipped at local banks' fixed deposits and will not stop there. Local banks are now raising rates to stem deposit outflow," CIMB said in a report. Shares of Thai Beverage PCL rose as much as 6.5 percent after Singapore's takeover regulator rejected a request by Fraser and Neave Ltd seeking a higher offer from a company linked to Thailand's third-richest man for all the shares of the drinks-and-property conglomerate. Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, through TCC Assets Ltd, launched a $7.2 billion offer this month to buy out other shareholders of F&N at S$8.88 a share. Charoen's ThaiBev and TCC are collectively F&N's biggest shareholder. ThaiBev was the second-highest traded stock by volume in the Singapore market on Monday. F&N shares were down 0.45 percent at S$8.90. 1347 (0547 GMT) (Reporting by Eveline Danubrata in Singapore; eveline.danubrata@thomsonreuters.com) ************************************************************ STOCKS NEWS SINGAPORE-OCBC starts Global Premium Hotels with 'buy' OCBC Investment Research initiated coverage of Global Premium Hotels Ltd with a 'buy' rating and a target price of S$0.29, citing a strong track record and positive outlook for Singapore's hotel sector. Global Premium shares were up 4.1 percent at S$0.255 and have fallen about 10.5 percent since it began trading in April, compared with a 2.3 percent decline in the FTSE ST Consumer Services Index over the same period. Global Premium is the second largest operator of economy-tier hotels in Singapore, with over 23 hotels and 1,738 rooms in total, OCBC said. It also noted that the company is developing a hotel under the "Parc Sovereign" brand, which would increase the total number of rooms it owns by 15 percent and could potentially lead to a fair value gain of S$42 million. The company will also benefit from the continued growth in Singapore's hotel sector. Demand for hotel rooms is expected to grow at 6.4 percent a year from 2012 to 2014, which is still higher than an expected hotel supply growth of 4.8 percent a year on average over the same period, OCBC said. 1220 (0420 GMT) (Reporting by Charmian Kok in Singapore; charmian.kok@thomsonreuters.com) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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