Singapore shares closed higher on Friday with the blue-chip Straits Times Index up 8.78 points to 2,971.97. Volume was 2.66 billion shares worth $1.44 billion. Gainers led losers 442 to 117.

US stocks rose on Friday with the Dow surpassing 11,000 for the first time in a year-and-a-half after Chevron’s upbeat outlook and wholesale inventories data reinforced bets on an improving economy.

CapitaMalls Asia, the owner of shopping malls in China and Singapore, said a wholly-owned subsidiary established a euro-medium term note programme worth $2 billion. Deutsche Bank AG, Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) and Standard Chartered Bank have been appointed to act as the joint arrangers and dealers.

Ezra Holdings posted a healthy 17.5% y-o-y growth in net attributable profit (PATMI) to US$28.8 million ($40 million) for its first half year ended Feb 28 2010 (1H FY10). The group also announced that its three core businesses had concluded new contracts worth US$79 million.

Midas Holdings said its joint-venture subsidiary has been awareded a contract worth 474 million yuan ($96.6 million) to supply metro train sets in Suzhou, China.

Debao Property Development, which starts trading at 9 a.m., may edge up on SGX debut on expected broad market uptick following Wall Street’s advance Friday, but interest may be overshadowed by another new listing today, Cache Logistics Trust, Singapore’s biggest IPO so far this year. Subdued investor appetite for Debao evident in IPO subscription rate of 1.19x vs 7.8x for industrial REIT Cache, which starts trading at 2 p.m.