Noble mulls more disclosure initiatives

Singapore

NOBLE Group said it is considering further disclosure initiatives as its shares suffered another blow on Friday despite the commodity trading group having made a share buyback.

The share rebound on Thursday proved short-lived as the counter buckled under the weight of news that Standard & Poors had revised its outlook on Noble from "stable" to "negative". The stock closed 2.8 per cent down at 68.5 Singapore cents on Friday, after trading between 65 and 70 cents.

Noble was the second most actively traded stock on the Singapore Exchange for the day, with 146.7 million shares changing hands; the counter has seen unusually high volumes since last week.

"The board, amongst other areas, is looking at introducing further initiatives around disclosure and the use of additional oversight of some balance sheet items," Noble's head of corporate affairs Stephen Brown …