Singapore stocks slide, tracking Wall Street declines; STI down 1%
Tay Peck Gek
ASIAN equities, including Singapore’s, were down on Friday (Dec 2), tracking a mixed Wall Street where two of the three key indices had closed lower.
Manufacturing activities in the US contracted in November while October’s core inflation rate at 5 per cent remains far above the Federal Reserve’s 2 per cent target. These make the near-term economic outlook challenging for risk assets, said Mansoor Mohi-uddin, chief economist at Bank of Singapore.
Investors are keenly watching for the non-farm payroll data for clues of the Fed’s interest rate decision this month, as the central bank has said its move will be data dependent.
The Singapore bourse fell 1 per cent or 33.59 points to 3,259.14 on Friday. It managed a 0.6 per cent rise for the week.
Shares of ground handler and inflight caterer Sats fell 2.9 per cent to S$2.67, a day after the company unveiled its funding structure for the proposed acquisition of air cargo handler Worldwide Flight Services. The mainboard-listed firm said it would raise up to S$800 million via a renounceable underwritten rights issue to partially fund the deal.
Conspicuously absent is an undertaking by majority shareholder and state investor Temasek to underwrite the fundraising. Sats had said that would trigger a mandatory general offer, or Temasek would have to ask other shareholders for a waiver to not make such an offer.
Digital Core Reit , a data centre real estate investment trust, slumped 5.7 per cent to US$0.575, a day after announcing it intends to proceed with an all-debt-funded acquisition of a 25 per cent interest in a Frankfurt facility for US$140 million, aborting an earlier plan for equity fundraising.
Across the broader Singapore market, gainers beat decliners 254 to 241, with a turnover of 1.2 billion securities worth S$1.11 billion.
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