Market View: Fed Hikes: Are Singapore Banks and US Stocks Back in Play?

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You know, Dr. D is one of my favorite forensic psychologists. We just had a fabulous lunch together and we were talking about everything and anything under the sun from psychopathology to the Lindsay Clancy trial, to of course making the most of life. So that was my takeaway from lunch that I wanted to share with you. All right. It is time for Market View. From Heidi Lau to Oriental Kopi, let's find out how some of Asia's favorite FNB players are faring in 2026

Welcome, everybody. It is 7 minutes past 12 I'm Michelle Martin with your Blitz Through Markets. Singapore diners may be feeling the pinch from higher prices, but spare a thought for the restaurants. The Business Times has been looking at how some of Asia's biggest publicly listed FNB players are doing, and the picture is mixed. So we're going to take a look at six companies in all. Every one of them is publicly listed across Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and the US. And for investors, there are really two questions. How are restaurants doing? What does the market think of them? Because in quite a few cases, these two things are telling very different stories. So I'm going to start with Yum China, which operates KFC and Pizza Hut across mainland China. Second quarter revenue rose 13% from a year earlier, while operating profit climbed 14% to a record for the quarter. Same store sales returned to growth, and Yum China added 516 new outlets in just three months, taking the network to more than 19,000 locations. So operationally, Yum China looks pretty strong, sales growing, profits rising, as the company still expands aggressively. Investors have been less impressed. Yum China's share price down 16% over the past month. Heidi Lau is another example of that disconnect. It's greater China business, Heidi Lau International, saw first half revenue rise about 8% while net profit edged higher. Now delivery has become a pretty important growth engine. Revenue from that business more than doubled, helped by single serve meals like rice bowls. Sales from Heidi Lau's newer restaurants concepts also more than doubled. So again, the business is growing, but the shares have not followed. So Heidi Lau International has lost more than 30% of its market value this year. Similar story over at Super High. Now that is a separately listed company that operates Heidi Lau restaurants outside of greater China, including here in Singapore. Second quarter revenue rose 10% and operating profit more than doubled. But Super High still posted a small net loss largely because of foreign exchange losses. Its shares are down nearly 30% this year. So with both Heidi Lau companies, customers are still coming through the doors and revenue is growing. But investors remain cautious. Malaysia's Oriental Cope, also expanding rapidly.

Now that chain is known for its white coffee, egg tarts, and it saw quarterly revenue jump by more than 30% as it continued opening new outlets. But here the pressure is showing up on the bottom line. Profit fell about 5% as cost rose and margins tightened. And investors have noticed Oriental Cope has lost more than a third of its market value this year. So the question there is not whether Oriental Cope can grow. Clearly can. The question is whether that growth can translate into stronger profits. Now on to Singapore, Japan Foods, which runs Ajisen Ramen, love that one, Menya Musashi and other brands saw annual revenue fall by nearly 17%.

It's been closing weaker restaurants. It's been cutting its self-operated Singapore network from 78 outlets to 58 Its losses are narrowing and management says halal concepts, including Tokyo Shokudo, are becoming an important growth engine for Japan Foods. But this is still a turnaround story rather than a growth story. Japan Foods shares have rallied a little over the past week, but they're still down more than one-third since, more than a third since January. And finally, I want to bring you to Tongluk because I think it stands out. Its shares have suddenly been rallying. Tongluk stocked up about 48% this month, which is a pretty big move. But if you zoom out, the picture is less dramatic. The stock is still down around 10% over the past 12 months, and underlying restaurant business remains under pressure. The group behind Tongluk Signatures, Tongluk Seafood, Dancing Crab, also saw annual revenue fall about 3%. It blamed weaker sales at existing restaurants.