Philip Chua Business Blog

Posts Tagged ‘quarter’

(SINGAPORE) After a sluggish start, listed companies in Singapore made up for lost time in the second quarter, with their bottom lines jumpstarted by the recovering economy. As of last Friday, the 105 companies that had released their financial results for Q2 ended June reported a 47.1 per cent year-on-year increase in combined net profit to $3.676 billion. And of the 105, an overwhelming majority... more

OCBC Bank's net profit rose 8 per cent to $503 million in the second quarter compared to a year ago, missing analysts' estimates, as the group struggled to boost its lending income amid low interest rates, while investment income halved due to turbulent financial markets. But OCBC raised its dividend for the first six months of the year to 15 cents per share, from 14 cents previously - the first t... more

The Canadian dollar was soft after the Bank of Canada today raised the benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage to 0.75% as expected but warned of a slow down in domestic and global economic recovery. This relatively dovish statement, however, was not able to play down the market expectation

New Zealand economy expanded for the fourth consecutive quarter during the first quarter of the year, as consumer spending that account for 60% of the GDP, inclined, with the rebounding of Exports that counts 30% of the nation's economy, led by the Chinese demand that supported the nation's growth.

THE positive momentum in the Singapore job market is continuing - especially so in the legal and merchandising/purchasing sectors, where job advertisements in the first quarter increased by a whopping 120 per cent and 119 per cent respectively compared to the previous quarter. This is according to the Robert Walters Asia Job Index for Q1 2010. The index attempts to gauge employer confidence by tra... more

Real GDP grew at a 3.2 percent annual rate, as strong growth in consumer spending and inventory rebuilding contributed the bulk of the improvement during the quarter. Business fixed investment was supported by equipment and software spending, while weakness in structures continued. Government outlays were a mixed picture, with federal...