Singapore shares close higher on Wednesday, STI up 0.4%

LOCAL equities continued their advance on Wednesday, tracking a rally on Wall Street. Investor optimism across stock markets was also lifted by the usual suspects, such as stimulus hopes and vaccine rollouts.

Tuesday's trading session on Wall Street saw the three indices close in the black: The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.6 per cent; the S&P 500 advanced 1.4 per cent, and the Nasdaq added 1.6 per cent.

Over in Singapore on Wednesday, the benchmark Straits Times Index rose 0.4 per cent or 10.18 points to finish the day at 2,927.47. Across the broader market, decliners outnumbered advancers 269 to 203, after some 2.35 billion securities worth S$1.29 billion changed hands.

Elsewhere in Asia, stock markets generally ended the day on a positive note. The Nikkei 225 added 1 per cent; the Kospi advanced 1.1 per cent, while the Hang Seng Index and KLCI each gained 0.2 per cent.

Only the SSE Composite Index and Shenzhen Component bucked the trend, falling 0.5 per cent and 0.7 per cent respectively.

Stephen Innes, chief global markets strategist at Axi, noted that this is "hardly the end of the rosy re-opening story" for stock markets, as investors' risk appetite remained buoyant on fiscal stimulus, improved global vaccine distribution and diminishing fears about retail-trading dislocation.

Topping the list of advancers were Jardine Matheson Holdings and Jardine Strategic Holdings. Jardine Matheson gained 1.5 per cent or US$0.87 to US$59.70, and Jardine Strategic added 2.5 per cent or US$0.65 to US$26.25.

iFast Corporation was the biggest loser for the day, after coming in among the top gainers for the past two trading sessions. The counter closed at S$6.14 on Wednesday, down 9.4 per cent or S$0.64.

Other decliners were Nanofilm Technologies, which fell 2 per cent or S$0.10 to S$5.01, and Top Glove, which slipped 3.5 per cent or S$0.08 to close at S$2.23.

For the third consecutive day, Oceanus was the most heavily traded stock with 371 million shares changing hands over the course of the day. It closed at 6.5 Singapore cents on Wednesday, down 1.5 per cent or 0.1 cent.