Singapore stocks climb after cooler US inflation sparks global rally; STI up 0.9%
Tay Peck Gek
ASIAN markets rose on Wednesday (Nov 15), after data released a day before showed inflation in the United States cooled further.
Singapore’s Straits Times Index (STI) advanced 0.9 per cent or 27.46 points to 3,132.12, tracking the rally in almost all major bourses across the Asia-Pacific region, especially Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan where their key gauges shot up by over 2 per cent.
Across the broader market, gainers beat decliners 426 to 234, with about 1.6 billion securities worth S$1.4 billion changing hands.
According to Principal Asset Management, the inflation print is good news for the Federal Reserve and makes a December hike unlikely, but until inflation shows a convincing and clear downward trend, the US central bank will likely struggle to mark the peak of its tightening cycle.
The banking trio in Singapore bucked the upward trend though, as any pause in the Federal Reserve’s rate-hiking campaign means a cap on net interest margin for the lenders. DBS declined 0.6 per cent or S$0.18 to S$32.42, UOB was S$0.02 or 0.1 per cent lower at S$27.31, while OCBC fell 0.5 per cent or S$0.07 to S$12.88.
Conversely, counters that have been at the receiving end of rising interest rates rallied on the news, with the top seven STI performers being all real estate investment trusts or other types of property players.
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Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust trumped the rest of the STI constituents, emerging as the best-performing counter after surging 6.8 per cent to close at S$1.42.
Yangzijiang Shipbuilding came in at the bottom of the STI performance chart after the vessel maker slipped 1.4 per cent to S$1.46.
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