Volatile Wall Street Ends Day With Rally
Banks were among the favourite stocks on Wednesday as investors hunted for bargains during a volatile session that finished with a strong rally. Morgan Stanley, up 15% to US$13.85 was among the key winners from strong gains in the financial sector. The benchmark S&P 500 Index finished up 2.6% at 870.74 after swinging between positive and negative territory throughout  the day. The Dow was 2.1% stronger at 8,591.69 and the Nasdaq Composite Index 2.9% higher at 1,492.38.

OKP Lands $20.8m LTA Contract For Drainage Works
OKP Holdings, a leading homegrown infrastructure and civil engineering company, has secured a $20.8m contract from LTA for drainage works in the North Buona Vista area. Work on the project is scheduled to commence in mid-December and is expected to be completed in December 2010.

Willas-Array Dissolves JV With Satori To Focus On Core Business
Willas-Array and Satori Electri have terminated their 50:50 JV, which was formed earlier on to market the NEC Electronics line of components in PRC with the intention of branching out to the other brands of product lines, in view of the weakened global consumer electronics sector and escalating resources requirements so as to focus on growing existing core businesses instead.

COSCO Receives Shipbuilding Cancellation Orders
COSCO Corp has, through its unit, COSCO (Dalian) Shipyard, agreed to request for cancellations and variations made by the other party in relation to the contracts totaling US$563m signed in 11 July 2007. Under the agreement, orders for 2 of the vessels will be cancelled conditional upon payment by the party of 80% of the total contract price of the remaining 3 vessels by December 2008. The party will compensate the company for all expenses incurred in respect of the 2 cancelled orders.

Best World And Sihuan Pharmaceutical Among Forbes “Best Under A Billion” Winners
Both mainboard listed Best World International and Sihuan Pharmaceutical have been named in Forbes Asia Magazine’s list of 200 “Best under a billion” companies. The accolades are formulated based on consistent growth in both sales and profits over three years. Best World International is in the list for the second year running while Sihuan Pharmaceutical is the only Singapore-listed pharmaceutical company selected in 2008.