1 Malaysian oil and gas giant Petronas is slashing its 2016 dividend to the government by nearly 40 per cent after a 91 per cent fall in its quarterly profit to RM1.4 billion (S$454 million) on weak crude prices, Reuters said.
2 Dutch lender ABN Amro has seen demand for all its initial public offering shares. The Dutch government is selling 23 per cent of the nationalised bank, raising up to €4.3 billion (S$6.6 billion), Bloomberg said.
3 Gold held near a three-month low on growing expectations that the US Federal Reserve will increase interest rates next month. Prices climbed 0.3 per cent to US$1,093.22 an ounce in the afternoon, Bloomberg said.
4 Over the past month, the 10 largest F&B stocks listed on the SGX have averaged a 6.3 per cent price gain. But so far this year, the average performance is -12.4 per cent. These stocks also have regional exposure.
5 Hor Kew Corp warned that the group will record a loss for the third quarter ended Sept 30 owing to lower revenue, rising material and labour costs and currency fluctuations.
