In what came as a disquieting surprise for most investors, Internet search giant Google Thursday reported weaker-than-projected results for the 2011 fourth quarter, largely due to lower advertising prices and the debt woes that hit Europe.

Reporting its earnings for the second quarter, Microsoft said that robust sales of its Office suite of programs and Xbox gaming system helped the company touch a profit figure which was two cents more than the analysts' estimates, even though the figure was `flat' in comparison to the numbers for the previous year.

Owing to declining contributions from rental properties as well as losses resulting from the turmoil in international markets, property developer and hotel-owner City Developments (CDL) witnessed a 32.4 percent year-on-year fall in its net profit figures for the third quarter.

In a recent stock exchange statement, CapitaLand Ltd. - which is the leading developer in Southeast Asia, and is 40 percent owned by Singapore - said that its profit in the third quarter had witnessed a fall of 83 percent.

Hong Kong based Noble group reserves a prestigious place for efficiently managing the global supply chains of agricultural and energy products, metals and minerals. The company has reported a 40% hike in operating profit to US$947 million (£580m) for the first half of 2011.

Further, the first half sales were observed to record $40bn (£24.5bn).

Yongnam Holdings, the civil engineering firm is running through the purple patch. Its second quarter net profit blossomed 12.9% from a 2010 to S$15.1 million.

In addition, revenue trimmed 1.9% to read S$82.5 million.

United Industrial Corporation has claimed a 23% year-on-year increase in its net profit to S$136.7 million, for the second quarter ended June 30. In addition, the company notified a fair value gain of S$147.8 million to its income statement for the quarter, based on valuations by independent professional values.