1 Local banks DBS, OCBC and UOB made an average 4 per cent gain last week, while the Bloomberg Asia-Pacific Banks Index rose 3.4 per cent. Last week's combined turnover of the Big Three was more than double the week before.

2 For the quarter ended Sept 30, Great Eastern and Singapore Reinsurance Corporation reported year-on-year increases in net profit. United Overseas Insurance posted an earnings fall of 22.4 per cent.

3 Sembcorp Marine is selling its 30 per cent stake in Cosco Shipyard Group for about 1.06 billion yuan (S$220.7 million). It will use the proceeds as working capital.

4 Silverlake Axis may sell some of its stake of 60.8 million shares in Global InfoTech, which is listed on ChiNext of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

5 Underground utilities infrastructure service provider Ley Choon plans to apply again to the SGX for approval to transfer the group from the mainboard to Catalist.