It opens today.

Affected by the across-the-board rally in US stocks, the Singapore stock market opened higher on March 2. as of 09:45, the Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.51% to 2987.75 points. In the big market, 186 companies rose and 123 fell, with 459 million shares temporarily traded with a turnover of S $333 million.

Analyst point of view

Most locally listed companies have finished releasing their latest quarterly results to the end of last year. The earnings performance of locally listed companies has improved quarter by quarter and growth is expected to resume this year.

FSMOne.com statistics show thatThe earnings performance of Singapore's Straits Times Index has bottomed out.Over the past six years, profits in the second quarter of last year fell 61% from a year earlier, the worst quarter.

The decline in HI earnings has narrowed since the second quarter of last year, narrowing to 18 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year.

Singapore's economy will return to growth, estimated at 5.5 per cent this year and 3.4 per cent next year. The macro-economy and fundamentals have improved, and the earnings of the HI are expected to recover strongly this year.

Chen Yijin and Yang Huishi, stock analysts of SMOne.com stock and listed fund research department

Last year's earnings performance was the worst since the global financial turmoil in 2009. But I believe the worst is over. In particular, most of the hardest-hit sectors, such as banking, retail, hotels and airlines, have made significant asset write-downs over the past year and there are few cases in which further write-downs are necessary.

Cai Dongliang, senior investment analyst, research department of Huili securities

This week's noteworthy data

Some of the market news or data that investors will be watching closely this week include weekly initial claims for unemployment benefits released in the United States on Thursday.

Local stock market news

Badly hit by the crown disease epidemic, nine sea index stocks have lost money in the past 12 months.

Based on earnings per share over the past 12 months, Cade, Urban Development, Keppel, Shengke, Sun Xiang, Singapore Airlines, Jardine Strategic, Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land all reported losses.

Cade posted the biggest loss in the group's history, while Urban Development posted its first full-year net loss in nearly 50 years.

Jardine Strategy and Jardine Holdings have yet to report full-year results, but the two companies already suffered losses in the first half of fiscal 2020.

Both Cade and urban development are caused by the impairment of real estate investment projects. It is not surprising that Xinxiang Group and Singapore Airlines suffered losses. Blockade measures have been taken in various markets, resulting in a great reduction in the number of passengers. The profitability of both companies is closely related to the number of flights and passengers.

-FSMOne.com analysts Chen Yijin and Yang Huishi

Real estate investment trust (REIT) is an important component of the sea index. Of the 30 constituent stocks of the sea index, there are six REIT, accounting for about 14% of the index.

Chen Yijin and Yang Huishi believe that REIT's earnings performance is tough. In order to help tenants cope with the epidemic, trusts provide rent remission. Although this has been a drag on their performance, their profits are still growing. "mainly because acquisitions have been made in the past year. In fact, all the REIT included in the HI have launched acquisitions. "

Keppel data Center Trust (Keppel DC REIT), for example, increased its dividend per unit (DPU) by 20.5% in fiscal year 2020. Three acquisitions by the Keppel data centre in Europe led to a strong performance last year.

The strong growth of cloud services and the expansion of 5G networks in various markets will strengthen the demand for data centers. Chen Yijin and Yang Huishi believe industrial trusts such as Keppel data Center Trust and take-off Ascendas REIT can continue to maintain tenacious earnings growth.

Overall, the biggest risk facing the market this year is still the crown disease epidemic. If the epidemic is brought under control faster and the economic recovery is accelerated, corporate profits will return to growth faster and more significantly.