Top Stock Market Highlights of the Week: Singapore’s GDP, Nvidia and Grab

Welcome to this week’s edition of top stock market highlights.

Singapore’s GDP

Good news for investors who are looking at Singapore’s economic growth numbers.

The Ministry for Trade and Industry (MTI) is keeping its forecast for Singapore’s gross domestic product (GDP) at between 1% to 3% for 2024.

Singapore’s economy grew by 2.7% year on year for the first quarter of 2024 (1Q 2024), slightly better than the expansion of 2.2% chalked up in the previous quarter.

The better numbers were driven by the finance and insurance, transportation and storage, and wholesale trade sectors.

Luckily, economic growth in the US and China was better than projected in 1Q 2024.

Both countries saw stronger-than-expected domestic demand.

Regional economies such as South Korea and Taiwan were supported by the global electronics recovery that was boosted by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) related chips.

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA)

Nvidia released another set of blowout earnings for its first quarter of fiscal 2025 (1Q FY2025) ending 28 April 2024.

Revenue hit US$26 billion, a record high and more than tripling year on year.

Operating profit came in at US$16.9 billion, up 690% year on year from US$2.1 billion a year ago.

Net profit stood at US$14.8 billion, up more than sevenfold year on year.

Free cash flow leapt more than fivefold year on year from US$2.7 billion to US$15 billion.

CEO Jensen Huang commented that companies and countries are partnering with Nvidia for the shift to accelerated computing and are building a new type of data centre called AI factories to produce a new commodity called AI.

He also believes that Nvidia is poised for the next wave of growth with its Blackwell platform in full production, which will eventually form the foundation for advanced generative AI.

In line with the blockbuster results, the company declared a 10-for-1 stock split effective 7 June 2024.

Nvidia also increased its dividend by 150% year on year to US$0.01 on a post-split basis.

The company’s accelerated computing ecosystem has attracted significant numbers of developers and AI startups who are supporting more AI applications, thereby pushing greater industry innovation.

Back in 2021, there were 2.5 million developers but this has more than doubled to 5.1 million in 1Q 2024.

For AI startups, there were 7,000 back in 2021 but this has nearly tripled in just three years to 19,000.

For 2Q FY2025, Nvidia expects revenue to come in at US$28 billion, plus or minus 2%.

If the forecast comes to pass, it would be more than double the US$13.5 billion of revenue generated back in 2Q FY2024.

Shares of Nvidia closed at a new all-time high of US$1,038 after its results were released, up more than 115% year to date.

Grab (NASDAQ: GRAB)

Grab reported an encouraging set of earnings for 1Q 2024 as it saw traction building across its various divisions.

Revenue jumped 24.4% year on year to US$653 million for the quarter, led by broad-based year-on-year revenue increases across its three core divisions.

Operating loss narrowed significantly to US$75 million from US$204 million a year ago.

Net loss clocked in at US$104 million, more than 57% lower than the net loss of US$244 million booked in 1Q 2023.

Operating cash flow was marginally negative at minus US$11 million for 1Q 2024, a significant improvement from the operating cash outflow of US$158 million a year ago.

Digging into each division, Deliveries saw its revenue rise 19% year on year to US$350 million, taking up the bulk of the company’s overall revenue.

Gross merchandise value (GMV) improved by 13% year on year to US$2.7 billion.

For 1Q 2024, the total number of monthly active advertisers joining Grab’s platform climbed 46% year on year to 119,000 while the average spend by these advertisers leapt 54% year on year.

The Mobility division saw its revenue increase by 27% year on year to US$247 million with GMV rising by the same quantum to US$1.5 billion.

The division saw monthly active driver supply increase by 11% year on year with average driver earnings per transit hour increasing by 9% year on year.

For Grab’s Financial Services division, revenue shot up 53% year on year to US$55 million with the ride-hailing company’s loan portfolio soaring 86% year on year to US$363 million.

Total loan disbursements grew 64% year on year for 1Q 2024 with the non-performing loans ratio at 2% of the total loan portfolio.

Overall, Grab’s operating metrics saw steady improvement with on-demand GMV rising by 18% year on year to US$4.2 billion.

Monthly transacting units (MTUs) also rose 16% year on year to 38.5 million users.

The company guided revenue to come in between US$2.7 billion to US$2.75 billion, up 14% to 17% year on year.

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Disclosure: Royston Yang does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned.

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