Singapore stocks ride on Santa Claus rally to close higher on Tuesday; STI up 0.8%

THE Straits Times Index (STI) climbed 0.8 per cent or 24.17 points to close at 3,128.41 points on Tuesday (Dec 28), driven by positive sentiment following a rally on Wall Street.

In the wider market, gainers outnumbered losers 290 to 175, with 975.3 million shares worth S$489.9 million changing hands.

Some market watchers chalked this down to the Santa Claus rally, referring to the tendency for stock markets to climb towards the end of the year.

"Given rich valuations after an enthused, if not euphoric, bull run in 2021 - printing a spate of records - it is not unreasonable to propose that this Santa rally is clearing a higher bar," said Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank.

For the second consecutive day this week, the top STI performer was Dairy Farm International Holdings, which gained 3.6 per cent or US$0.10 to close at US$2.90.

At the bottom of the table was Thai Beverage (ThaiBev), which closed 0.8 per cent or S$0.005 down at S$0.66. ThaiBev was the sole decliner among the STI constituents.

Singtel was again the most heavily traded counter on the blue-chip index, with 12.6 million shares traded. The counter, which also clocked the highest trading volume among STI stocks on Dec 27, rose 1.3 per cent or S$0.03 to close at S$2.35.

The trio of local lenders all finished higher in the day. DBS rose 0.8 per cent or S$0.25 to S$32.75, UOB gained 0.6 per cent or S$0.17 to S$26.90 and OCBC closed 0.9 per cent or S$0.10 up at S$11.42.

Sentiment soared across key Asian markets, with Japan's Nikkei 225 Index, South Korea's Kospi Composite Index, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index and the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ending 0.2 per cent to 1.4 per cent higher.