Stocks closed flat in another thinly-traded session as Greece remained in a standstill over accepting tough reforms in exchange for a bailout critical to avoiding a chaotic default.

Underlying confidence kept the Dow near an almost four-year high notched on Tuesday, though trading has been quiet since last week's stellar employment report. The S&P and Nasdaq are both up 0.3 per cent so far this week while the Dow is essentially unchanged.

Brent crude oil futures rose for the seventh straight day, rising 97 US cents to US$117.20 - the highest in more than six months on hopes that a deal to bail out debt-strapped Greece was near. US crude settled at US$98.71, edging up 30 US cents.

The head of China Sky Chemical Fibre, Mr Huang Zhong Xuan, is stepping down due to "personal health reasons", the company said in a stock exchange filing yesterday.

Mr Huang, 49, was the chief executive officer for almost seven years.

He is also stepping down as executive director of the Singapore-listed, China-based manufacturer.

On Jan 17, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) withdrew a lawsuit that sought to force China Sky to comply with an order to appoint a special auditor to investigate certain transactions. China Sky had refused to comply with the order, saying in December that some demands made by the SGX were "extremely unreasonable."

The SGX has not said why the suit was withdrawn.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority has awarded the tender for the residential site at Jervois Road to SL Development, which submitted the highest bid of S$118.9 million.

The 99-year leasehold site had attracted 17 bids during the tender exercise, which was launched on Dec 22 last year and closed on Feb 2.

The 96,423-sq-ft site has a maximum permissible gross floor area of about 135,000 sq ft and is expected to yield 140 units.

SL Development's winning bid works out to about S$881 psf ppr.

Standard & Poor's cut its long-term debt rating on Sony yesterday to BBB+ and warned of a further downgrade within a year unless it shows it can achieve a significant turnaround in profitability.

"The major reason for the extended losses is Sony's strategy to aggressively expand its global market share despite strong competition, a massive erosion of prices and its high cost structure compared with overseas competitors," S&P said.

The move follows a downgrade by Moody's last month to Baa1 from A3.

The rating action will put more pressure on incoming CEO Kazuo Hirai to move quickly to stem losses, particularly in a floundering television unit on course for an eighth straight year of losses amid slumping demand and rising competition.

Sony warned on Feb 2 that it was heading for a larger-than-expected US$2.9 billion (S$3.6 billion) loss in the year ending March 31. Reuters

Citigroup, the third-largest American bank by assets, yesterday named Mr Rodrigo Zorrilla to the newly created role of chief operating officer for Asia-Pacific, as part of a management shuffle under a single chief for the region.

Citi's Singapore country head and country officer Michael Zink (picture) has been promoted cluster head of its businesses in the ASEAN region.

In this newly created role, Mr Zink will oversee Citi's businesses in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, and Brunei as well as Guam, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He will also continue to oversee Citi's businesses and franchise in Singapore.

The region's head of global transaction services, Mr Anthony Nappi, was named chief administrative officer for Asia-Pacific, also a new position, according to a statement from Citi Singapore.

Replacing Mr Zorrilla as head of Asia-Pacific markets is Mr Nadir Mahmud, currently Asia head of local markets and foreign exchange strategy.

The moves follow the appointment of Mr Stephen Bird as sole chief executive officer for the bank's Asia-Pacific operations at the start of the year, a position he previously shared.

Stocks rose slightly, but with the outcome of discussions on a bailout package for Greece uncertain, investors are unlikely to make big bets in coming days.

In a sign of underlying confidence, the 10-day moving average of stocks posting 52-week highs on the NYSE is at 203, the highest level since May 2010, according to Thomson Reuters

Oil prices rose, bolstered by an unplanned outage at a Canadian oil sands plant and optimism about an agreement on Greece's debt problems. Brent March crude rose 30 US cents to settle at US$116.23 a barrel, a sixth straight higher close. US crude jumped US$1.50 to settle at US$98.41 a barrel.

Singapore airline gateway and food services provider SATS said yesterday third-quarter net profit fell 25.4 per cent on-year to S$38.2 million, partly due to lower contribution from associate firms.

This was despite a 32.3-per-cent rise in group revenue to S$442.3 million.

Pre-tax profit contribution from overseas associates fell 15.7 per cent to S$12.9 million, mainly due to lower cargo volumes handled in certain associated companies, it said.

Revenue from gateway services rose 10.5 per cent to S$155.6 million, while food solutions increased 49.4 per cent to S$285.3 million, due mainly to the consolidation of subsidiary Tokyo Flight Kitchen which contributed S$82 million.

Singapore investor Temasek Holdings is selling a 1.38-per-cent stake in India's second-largest lender ICICI Bank in a deal to raise up to US$303 million, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters yesterday.

Temasek held 39.83 million shares of ICICI Bank, or 3.46 per cent, as of end-September, via its unit Allamanda, according to Thomson Reuters data.

ICICI Bank shares are being sold in the range of 924 rupees (S$23.50) to 937.75 rupees each and Goldman Sachs is the sole bookrunner, the term sheet showed.

ICICI Bank and Temasek declined to comment. Reuters