Singapore shares rally 1.6% as jitters over trade tariffs ease

SINGAPORE shares ended higher on Tuesday, as earlier concerns over US President Donald Trump's trade threats are replaced by optimism that they do not have consensus support within the administration.

After opening at 3,475.40, the Straits Times Index rallied to close at 3,491.92, up 53.31 points, or 1.55 per cent. More than 2.3 billion shares, worth S$1.5 billion, changed hands. There were 284 gainers to 150 losers.

Sembcorp Marine (SMM) closed at S$2.01, up 11 Singapore cents, or almost 6 per cent in active trade of more than 27 million shares. The rig builder's share price was boosted by a DBS Group Research report that Energean Oil & Gas (Energean) has handed out a contract worth US$1.36 billion for the floating production, storage and offloading unit for its proposed Karish gas field development off Israel to TechnipFMC. The latter is expected to release details soon.

SMM was said to be in pole position to secure the contract to build the vessel, according to Upstream in January. If the deal materialises, this will be SMM's first major contract for this year and confidence booster on order win momentum, DBS said.