Overnight Wall Street rally lifts Singapore counters; STI rises 1.2%

[SINGAPORE] An overnight rally on Wall Street – fuelled by optimism over corporate earnings – drove the Singapore stock market upward on Tuesday (Oct 21).

The Straits Times Index (STI) rose 1.2 per cent or 52.12 points to 4,381.05 points, with all but two of its 30 constituent stocks closing higher.

Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust fell 0.5 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.96; the other outlier on the Singapore Exchange’s blue-chip gauge was CapitaLand Investment , which ended Tuesday unchanged at S$2.63.

STI constituent Jardine Matheson announced on Oct 17 that it will be delisting hotel group Mandarin Oriental at US$2.75 a share, with a special dividend of US$0.60 thrown in from a recent property sale.

Mandarin Oriental shares surged to US$3.27 on Tuesday, up 36.3 per cent or US$0.87 from its closing price of US$2.40 on Oct 17.

Jardine Matheson, meanwhile, topped the STI, with a 7.8 per cent or US$4.77 rise to US$65.90.

Companies in the Jardine stable all closed higher. DFI Retail Group , rose 1.8 per cent or US$0.06 to US$3.45; Hongkong Land gained 0.8 per cent or US$0.05 to US$6.23; and Jardine C&C ended 2.5 per cent or S$0.71 higher at S$29.29.

Across the broader market, there were 429 gainers and 199 decliners, with 1.6 billion of securities worth S$1.7 billion changing hands.

Over on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.12 per cent to 46,706.58; the S&P 500 gained 1.1 per cent to 6,735.13; and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.4 per cent to 22,990.54. The overnight gains came after upbeat quarterly earnings results improved investor sentiment.