Stocks to watch: Otto Marine, mm2 Asia, Lippo Malls Indonesia Retail Trust

OFFSHORE marine company Otto Marine has secured orders worth US$131 million, mainly contributed by the group's chartering business, in the second quarter of its financial year 2015 till date.

The substantial increase in new chartering contracts was attributable to the group's strategy to improve the utilisation rate of the fleet, in view of the potential cost that idle vessels will incur, the group said in a statement on Monday morning. Utilisation rate for the group's chartering business has also improved for Q2FY15 against the last few quarters, it added.

Singapore shares open 1.34% lower on Monday

SINGAPORE shares opened lower on Monday with the Straits Times Index down 1.34 per cent or 44.48 points to 3,276.42 as at 9.01am, on the back of mounting fears of the crisis in Greece as the government declared emergency closure of banks until July 6 because of collapse of talks with creditors.

It cited "the extremely urgent and unforeseen need to protect the Greek financial system and the Greek economy due to the lack of liquidity caused by the Eurogroup's decision on June 27 to refuse the extension of the loan agreement with Greece".

In the region, the Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange dipped 2.29 per cent, or 471.93 points, to 20,234.22 at the start of trading on Monday, while the S&P/ASX200 at the Australian Securities Exchange was down 1.6 per cent, or 88.9 points, to 5,457 points. In Singapore, some 124.9 million shares worth S$104 million changed hands. Losers outnumbered gainers 149 to 32.

Amtek shares jump 8.2% after stake sale report

Shares of mainboard-listed Amtek Engineering rose as much as 8.2 per cent to 73 cents on Monday moring, their highest in more than 2 weeks, after Bloomberg News reported on Friday that CVC Capital Partners and Standard Chartered Private Equity are exploring the sale of their majority stake in company.

Standard Chartered and CVC hold a combined 58 per cent in Amtek,valued at US$212 million at close of trading on Friday.

Amtek, maker of components for Tesla Motors Inc, was not immediately reachable for a comment. CVC Capital did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment, while Standard Chartered declined to comment.

Amtek, which renamed itself Interplex Holdings Ltd. on Friday after a subsidiary it acquired last year, is looking to markets outside Asia as its majority shareholders consider a possible divestment.

Hot stock: Noble continues share buyback

NOBLE Group said on Monday it has bought back a further three million shares at 69.529 Singapore cents each. The total consideration for the shares, which were purchased by way of market acquisition on June 19, was S$2.09 million.

The buyback marked the commodity trader's fifth such transaction this month.

All told, the group has bought back about 105.71 million shares - around 1.57 per cent of its total share base or 15.67 per cent of the maximum 673.95 million shares authorised for purchase under the buyback mandate. Noble, which has attracted criticism for its accounting practices, saw its shares slip 0.71 per cent, or half a Singapore cent per share, to 69.5 Singapore cents as at 9.44am on Monday.

Shares end 0.4 per cent higher on Monday

SINGAPORE shares closed 0.4 per cent higher on Monday, with the Straits Times Index up 14.17 points to 3,315.13 as investors cheered news that crisis-mired Greece had proposed fresh reforms ahead of an emergency eurozone summit.

The blue-chip index was mainly lifted by Singtel, which gained 1.7 per cent or S$0.07 to S$4.30, and the three local banks.

In total, about 1.27 billion shares worth S$1.01 billion changed hands, which worked out to an average unit price of S$0.79 per share.

The most actively traded stock was Yuuzoo, which jumped 7.5 per cent or S$0.02 to S$0.285 with 75.1 million shares changing hands. Other actives included Healthway Medical and Magnus Energy.

Losers outnumbered gainers 226 to 198, or about eight down for every seven up.