SINGAPORE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTS - OCT 1, 2003.

SINGAPORE, Oct 1 Asia Pulse - Highlights of today's newspapers:

THE STRAITS TIMES

- Singapore will get the first factory in South-east Asia to make DVD recorders, touted the next big thing in home entertainment, as Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial invests $160 million here.

- Marine and technology companies led the charge as profits posted by Singapore-listed firms with a June 30 year-end bounced back strongly after a dismal overall showing last year. Some property firms also fared well.

- Concerns held by research units of foreign-based brokerage firms over taking part in a newly unveiled incentive scheme for research on locally listed companies have been allayed by the central bank.

- Embattled Startech Electronics incurred a net loss of .1 million for the half-year ended June 30 as it faces the prospect of its second boardroom coup in less than four months.

- Beyonics Technology, which makes disk-drive parts, said yesterday that its full-year net profit slipped 38.5 per cent to $11.1 million, and proposed a two-for-five share consolidation.