PRE-MARKET TAIWAN AND SINGAPORE NEWS: Nasdaq outperformed in US trade as lower yields supported technology stocks, although E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are subdued overnight

Hermes Testing Solutions (7856 TT) - Co. expects revenue from thermal management modules to double next year as heat dissipation becomes increasingly critical for advanced and AI chips. (Taipei Times)

Tech - Nasdaq outperformed in US trade as lower yields supported technology stocks, although E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are subdued overnight.

Data Recap

Taiwan Industrial Production YY (Jul) 25.6% (Prev. 22.6%).

Taiwan’s manufacturing climate index rose 2.48 points M/M to a more than four-year high of 101.09 as the global AI boom continued to drive orders for chips and related hardware, according to TIER. (Taipei Times)

Frencken Group (FRKN SP) - Co. requested an immediate trading halt pending the release of an announcement. (Business Times)

Marco Polo Marine (MPM SP) - Co. Q3 (SGD) net rose 7% Y/Y to 15mln, rev. rose 13% Y/Y to 35.7mln. (Business Times)

Penguin International (PBS SP) - Co. secured a contract with Singapore’s Ministry of Defence to build two landing craft for the Republic of Singapore Navy, its first naval shipbuilding programme as a prime contractor. (Business Times)

Singapore Post (SPOST SP) - Co. Q1 (SGD) operating profit rose 55.2% Y/Y to 4.1mln, rev. fell 0.9% Y/Y to 93.4mln, while operating margin rose to 4.4% (prev. 2.8%). (Business Times)

A pre-market regional roundup of this kind bundles a data recap, single-name corporate items and a cross-market lead, and the pieces historically trade on separate channels rather than as one theme. The Taiwan production print and the manufacturing climate reading both point the same way, and episodes where AI-linked chip and hardware orders drive Taiwan's industrial data have tended to transmit through the semiconductor peer set and the broader Taiwan tech complex rather than the wider index, with the Nasdaq lead reinforcing that bias when lower yields are the stated driver. The distinction worth drawing is between the cash-session momentum from Wall Street and subdued overnight index futures, which in past episodes of this kind has capped the follow-through in Asian tech at the open. On the corporate side, trading halts pending announcements have typically resolved into M&A or capital-markets news, and defence contract wins of the kind noted here have tended to re-rate small-cap shipbuilders only where they signal a durable prime-contractor role rather than a one-off award. The margin-led profit beat at the postal operator fits a recurring pattern where cost restructuring drives earnings more than top line. The follow-ons are the halt company's announcement and any read-across from the Taiwan data into the semiconductor supply chain names.