The pound was near a 22 month low after the Bank of England cut its growth forecast and signaled interest rates may be cut. A US report today is expected to show consumer confidence rose for a second month.

Keppel FELS, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Keppel Corporation, has won the contract to build the seventh ENSCO 8500 Series deepwater semisubmersible worth US$560m.

Singapore Technologies Engineering announced that its land systems arm, Singapore Technologies Kinetics has commenced the redevelopment of its premises at Jalan Boon Lay and Chin Bee Road.

Cacola Furniture International, an integrated lifestyle furniture designer and manufacturer in the PRC, posted a 42% leap in net profit to Rmb85.5m on a 35% growth in revenue to Rmb368.5m for the six months ended 30 June 2008.

The euro slumped to a 5-month low against the dollar as bets on the European Central Bank to raise interest rates due to a slowing economy were reduced.

Earnings for Main board-listed ISDN Holdings, an integrated engineering solutions provider for diverse industries, surged by 70.8% to $4.4m in 1H08, as revenue increased by 32.7% to $57.4m.

Mainboard-listed Rickmers Maritime announced a solid set of results for 1H08. All financial indicators outperformed forecasts, especially net profit which exceeds projections by 53%.

China Animal Healthcare’s revenue for 1H08 increased 63.4% from Rmb103.8m in 1H07 to Rmb169.6m in 1H08.

The CEO of The St. James, Dennis Foo, inked a non-binding memorandum of understanding to take over the premises and assets of the defunct Crazy Horse cabaret.

CapitaLand posted profit after tax and minority interests (PATMI) of $762.7m for 1H08, compared with $1,520.7m in 1H07.