SINGAPORE stocks rose for a fourth consecutive day on Friday (Jan 27), ending the week higher amid a broader rally across the region.

The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.5 per cent or 17.02 points to close at 3,394.21. Over the trading week, the market barometer gained around 3.1 per cent or 100.5 points.

Real estate investment trusts (Reits) led Friday’s gains, making up four of the five top-performing STI counters. Keppel DC Reit topped the index performance table, climbing 3 per cent or S$0.06 to S$2.09. It was also the top performer for the week, with its units rising 8.3 per cent since last Friday’s close.

Units of Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust, Mapletree Industrial Trust and Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust rose between 1.6 and 2.2 per cent.

Meanwhile, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding was the worst STI performer on Friday, slipping 1.6 per cent or S$0.02 to S$1.25.

Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 335 to 222 after 1.6 billion securities worth S$1.4 billion were traded.

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Sembcorp Marine was the most actively traded by volume, with 255.5 million shares worth S$36.4 million changing hands. The counter rose 2.9 per cent or S$0.004 to S$0.142.

Elsewhere in the region, markets broadly closed higher. Key indices in Australia, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong rose between 0.1 and 0.6 per cent, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street.

Saxo market strategist Charu Chanana noted that expectations of a soft landing have picked up since the start of the year, relative to the rising recession bets seen in the second half of last year. She noted that recent economic data has been “extremely volatile”.

“There is reason to believe that the US Federal Reserve will want to lengthen its tightening cycle, and go in smaller steps, in order to buy more time to assess the growth and inflation dynamics,” she added.