Posts by Stephanie Irvin
Zara owner Inditex boosted by pick-up in Spring sales
ZARA owner Inditex reported a pick-up in recent sales from its Spring/Summer collections, boosting its shares on Wednesday (Jun 5) as the world’s top fashion retailer delivered quarterly results in line with expectations. The Spanish company said sales rose 12 per cent between May 1 and Jun 3 from the same time the year before,…
Read MoreSingapore retail sales miss forecasts with reversal into 1.2% decline in April
SINGAPORE’S retail sales fell 1.2 per cent year on year in April, reversing from the 2.8 per cent growth posted in the month before, with most industries recording declines in sales. April’s result was below estimates by private-sector economists, who expected retail sales to grow 1.9 per cent year on year in a Bloomberg poll.…
Read MoreNium raises US$50 million in Series E round
GIC and Temasek-backed payments startup Nium has raised US$50 million in a Series E funding round, which values the company at US$1.4 billion post-money. The funding round was led by a sovereign wealth fund in South-east Asia, joined by new investors from the prior round, such as Bond, NewView Capital, and Tribe Capital, said the startup…
Read MoreBitcoin posts longest winning run since March on rate-cut wagers
BITCOIN again poked above the US$70,000 level and flirted with a gain for a fifth straight session, reflecting greater confidence in global markets about the prospect of Federal Reserve interest-rate reductions this year. The largest digital asset’s run of daily increases is the longest in three months, leaving the original cryptocurrency at US$70,530 as at…
Read MoreCapitaLand Investment enhances reporting of Scope 3 emissions
CapitaLand Investment (CLI) has enhanced its Scope 3 emissions reporting with new categories and an expansion of existing categories. This follows the latest review of its full inventory of such emissions across its value chain, said CLI on Wednesday (Jun 5). Scope 3 emissions are the indirect emissions arising from a company’s supply chain. The real…
Read MoreTikTok says cyberattack targeted big names including CNN
TIKTOK on Tuesday (Jun 4) said it slammed the door on a cyberattack that targeted high-profile accounts including CNN. The number of accounts compromised was “very small” and TikTok has beefed up defences to thwart the method used by the hackers, according to a spokesperson. “We have taken measures to stop this attack and prevent…
Read MoreMicrosoft takes its AI push to customer service call centres
MICROSOFT on Tuesday (Jun 4) said it will introduce new artificial intelligence (AI) tools for customer service call centres. Microsoft, which has backed ChatGPT creator OpenAI, is taking AI technology into a number of fields of the business world with what it calls Copilot technology, which is capable of summarising e-mails and crafting PowerPoint slides…
Read MoreHPE reports sales that top estimates on boost from AI servers
HEWLETT Packard Enterprise (HPE) reported revenue that beat analysts’ estimates on a big jump in sales of servers built to handle artificial intelligence (AI) work. The shares rose in extended trading. Fiscal second-quarter revenue increased 3.3 per cent to US$7.2 billion, the company said on Tuesday (Jun 4). Wall Street projected a 2 per cent…
Read MoreOil drops as Opec+ boosts supply even though demand is shaky
OIL prices fell more than US$1 a barrel on Tuesday (Jun 4) on scepticism about an Opec+ decision to boost supply later this year into a global market where demand has already shown signs of weakness. Extending losses from a four-month low reached on Monday, Brent crude futures settled down 84 US cents, or 1.07…
Read MoreHSBC bolsters Saudi Arabia investment banking team to tap deals boom
HSBC Holdings named new heads for two of its investment banking businesses in Saudi Arabia to bolster its position in a hot spot for deal activity. Mehdi Benabdallah has been appointed as head of mergers and acquisitions in the kingdom while Ramez Halazun was named head of equity capital markets, according to an internal memo…
Read More