1 Oil rose a third day yesterday on signs that Opec members have made progress towards completing a deal to cut output, Bloomberg noted. West Texas Intermediate for January delivery was trading at US$48.78 at 9.30am in London.

2 The S-Reit index has fallen 4.5 per cent since the Nov 8 US presidential election while the Straits Times Index has been flat, largely due to expectations of a US interest rate hike next month, an SGX report noted.

3 SGX-listed Accrelist, formerly WE Holdings, has secured a $4 million convertible loan for a new corporate services business focusing on the education and financial technology sectors.

4 SGX-listed Aspial has repurchased $15 million in notes that it had earlier proposed to buy. Aspial said it will not be repurchasing any further notes under the proposed repurchase.

5 Hi-P International has bought 100,300 of its shares at between 48.5 cents and 49 cents each for a total consideration of $49,014.