Banking stocks help lift STI by 0.4% amid rising US Treasury yields
Across the broader market, there are 311 gainers against 222 losers, with nearly 1.2 billion securities worth S$895.6 million changing hands
SINGAPORE shares joined most regional peers to close higher on Wednesday (Oct 23), lifted by higher local banking share prices.
The Straits Times Index (STI) rose 13.37 points or 0.4 per cent to 3,600.78 even though only 12, or fewer than half of the 30 stocks on the benchmark, finished higher.
Zane Aw, research analyst at Phillip Securities Research, told The Business Times: “The three local banks, which make up almost 50 per cent of the STI’s weightage, are up between 0.5 and 1.3 per cent. This is likely why STI rebounded today.”
DBS rose S$0.20 or 0.5 per cent to S$39.18, UOB was up S$0.21 or 0.7 per cent at S$32.30 and OCBC increased 1.3 per cent or S$0.19 to S$15.37.
The banking trio might have been buoyed by the prospect of interest rates staying elevated as the US 10-year Treasury yield continued to rise on Tuesday, and comments from Federal Reserve officials tampered expectations for interest rate cuts.
Banks benefit from elevated interest rates as that would fatten their net interest margin.
Although builder Wee Hur said on Oct 17 that its A$1.6 billion (S$1.4 billion) student accommodation sale was not a done deal yet, its share price has risen 23.2 per cent since, including a 6.3 per cent or S$0.03 increase on Wednesday to S$0.505 – a 52-week-high. It was also the most traded counter with a volume of about 34.4 million shares.
Across the broader market, there were 311 gainers against 222 losers, with nearly 1.2 billion securities worth S$895.6 million changing hands.
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