Singapore Hot Stocks-Noble, Straits Asia in focus

SINGAPORE, March 5 (Reuters) - Shares of commodity groups
such as Noble (NOBG.SI) and Straits Asia (STRL.SI) will be in
focus on Thursday after U.S. stocks rallied, ending a 5-day
losing streak.

The rise was boosted by another Chinese stimulus package
that pushed up commodity prices, encouraging investors to jump
into energy and natural resource shares.
----------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 0037 GMT ------------

INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG
S&P 500 .SPX 712.87 2.38% 16.540
USD/JPY JPY= 99.21 0.22% 0.220
10-YR US TSY YLD US10YT=RR 3.0022 -- 0.026
SPOT GOLD XAU= 912.15 0.58% 5.250
US CRUDE CLc1 45.54 0.35% 0.160
DOW JONES .DJI 6875.84 2.23% 149.82
ASIA ADRS .BKAS 78.97 4.13% 3.13
------------------------------------------------------------- >
China hopes, oil's jump end Wall St 5-day rout [.N] >
Dollar climbs vs yen, buoyed by China optimism [USD/] >
Bonds sag as Wall St rally curbs safety [US/] >
Gold falls as investors pocket battered equities [GOL/] >
Oil gains nearly 9 pct on U.S. crude stocks drop [O/R]

Stocks and factors to watch:

-- PARKWAY HOLDINGS (PARM.SI), RAFFLES MEDICAL (RAFG.SI)

- Research house Nomura issued "buy" calls on medical
groups Parkway and Raffles, citing strong brand equity,
scalable business models and both companies being at their
trough values now, said the Business Times.

-- CAPITALAND (CATL.SI)

- Singapore's largest property developer CapitaLand has
taken issue with a Standard & Poor's report that had downgraded
the outlook for the property giant's credit rating, saying the
agency had omitted to mention its recently announced fully
underwritten $1.8 billion rights issue, reported the Business
Times.

-- FRASER AND NEAVE (FRNM.SI)

- Property and beverage group Fraser and Neave increased a
three-year loan by 23 percent after banks offered more than the
company initially planned to borrow, the Business Times
reported quoting a foreign news agency.

-- YELLOW PAGES YELP.SI

- Phone directory publisher Yellow Pages said it acquired
trade directory publisher Singapore Information Services Pte
Ltd for approximately $6 million. [ID:nSN3450952]

- Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index .FTSTI gained
1.04 percent to 1,544.34 points on Wednesday.

- The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 2.23 percent
to 6,875.84 points. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC was up
by 2.48 percent to 1,353.74 points.
(Reporting by Kash Cheong; Editing by Nopporn Wong-Anan)