Singapore shares buck regional gains on Tuesday; STI down 0.2%

SINGAPORE shares fell marginally on Tuesday (Feb 14) as traders stayed on the sidelines, anxiously awaiting key US inflation data for more clues on rate movements in the world’s largest economy. Measures announced in the Singapore Budget 2023 also gave investors plenty to digest.

The Straits Times Index (STI) slipped 6.5 points or 0.2 per cent to 3,318.20. On the wider bourse, losers outnumbered gainers 252 to 248 after 1.2 billion securities worth S$880.4 million changed hands.

Most other key gauges in the region finished higher, including Japan, Taiwan, China and Malaysia to South Korea and Australia, tracking Wall Street’s overnight gains. Besides Singapore, Hong Kong also bucked the trend to close lower.

SPI Asset Management’s Stephen Innes said: “The waiting game goes on as investors jockey for positions ahead of US inflation data. While growth and Fed policy outlooks have improved on the margin, growth momentum – particularly sentiment indexes – has to pick up to sustain the current bullish sentiment cycle.”

OCBC Treasury Research said that there were lingering concerns about a bumpy disinflation path, adding that if the US disinflation trend showed signs of slowing – even temporarily – risk sentiment could come under pressure.

Sats came up among the STI’s top decliners on Tuesday, slipping S$0.14 or 4.7 per cent to S$2.86. It was also the day’s eighth-most actively traded counter, with 20.2 million shares transacted.

On Monday, Sats’ third-quarter report card signalled a gradual recovery, despite higher-than-expected operating costs. The in-flight caterer and ground handler earned S$0.5 million in the quarter ended Dec 31, 2022. While this was 90 per cent lower than earnings in the corresponding three months a year ago, it marked a reversal from the previous two consecutive quarters of losses.

CGS-CIMB Research reiterated its “add” rating on Sats, with a target price of S$3.21. The brokerage said the company remained a proxy for the recovery in travel, citing a stronger-than-expected uptick in revenues from China as a re-rating catalyst.

Fibre network infrastructure provider NetLink NBN Trust bucked losses on the Singapore Exchange on Tuesday, rising S$0.02 or 2.3 per cent to S$0.875. On Monday, it reported a 24.2 per cent on-year rise in profit after tax for the nine months to Dec 31, 2022, on the back of increased revenue and lower operating expenses.