Singapore stocks fall on Wednesday amid mixed regional trading; STI down 0.1%

SINGAPORE stocks ended lower on Wednesday (Oct 19), amid mixed trading in the region. The Straits Times Index (STI) lost 0.1 per cent or 3.08 points to close at 3,022.8.

Losers outnumbered gainers 315 to 209, after 964 million securities worth S$856.5 million changed hands.

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding was the top-traded counter by volume, with 35.4 million shares worth S$40.2 million traded. The counter fell 1.7 per cent to S$1.14 at the close.

The top gainer on the STI was ST Engineering. The counter rose 2.8 per cent to end at S$3.26, with 8.1 million shares worth S$26.5 million changing hands.

The trio of local banks were up on Wednesday. DBS gained 1.1 per cent to S$32.85, OCBC rose 0.4 per cent to S$11.64, and UOB was up 0.04 per cent at S$26.27.

Elsewhere in Asia, key indices were mixed. The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index gained 1.1 per cent; the Nikkei 225 Index was up 0.4 per cent. The Hang Seng Index lost 2.4 per cent, and the SSE Composite Index was down 1.2 per cent.

Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, said: “As has been the case of late, any disturbance in global fixed-income markets immediately haemorrhages into risk.”

He noted that global bond yields have been rising, as the December Gilt future is trading down amid strong CPI data in the UK.

However, there are “nascent signs that the global activity-to-inflation composition is bettering”, he added.

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He noted that US bank-sector earnings suggested consumer balance sheets were in a good place, while global price pressures are receding as supply bottlenecks ease.