BEIJING (AFP) - Manufacturing activity in China contracted in May for the first time in seven months, HSBC said on Thursday, in another sign of the weakness of recovery in the world's second-largest economy.
SYDNEY (AP) - Ford Motor Co. said on Thursday it was closing its two Australian auto plants and ending production in the country in 2016, amid soaring manufacturing costs and plummeting sales.
Singapore shares opened lower on Thursday, with the benchmark Straits Times Index at 3,443.27 in early trade, down 0.32 per cent, or 11.10 points.
Exporters in Singapore shipped 12.5 per cent fewer goods overseas in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period a year ago, trade agency IE Singapore said on Thursday.
Singapore's economy grew 0.2 per cent in the first three months of this year compared with the same period a year ago, defying earlier estimates of a 0.6 per cent contraction.
