Singapore’s blue-chip gauge closes 0.3% higher

SINGAPORE shares rose on Friday (Dec 27), with the Straits Times Index (STI) closing marginally higher after Wall Street was little changed overnight, post-Christmas.

Trading volumes, as SPI Asset Management’s managing partner Stephen Innes noted, dried up and stocks stalled on Wall Street. “With the calendar year winding down and little in the way of tier-one economic data, the market is content mainly to drift until something shakes it from its slumber...”

STI, Singapore’s blue-chip gauge, was 0.3 per cent or 10.18 points higher at 3,771.63 on Friday, and 1.4 per cent above last Friday’s close.

Jardine Matheson recorded the biggest gains on the index, up 1.9 per cent or US$0.77 at US$41.43, while Thai Beverage fell the most, declining 0.9 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.55.

Gainers beat decliners 261 to 215 across the broader market, with 852.8 million securities valued at S$538.9 million being transacted.

Technology solutions provider CSE Global closed 5.4 per cent or S$0.025 lower at S$0.435, after it said on Friday morning that its financial performance for the current financial year ending Dec 31 may be affected by a lawsuit its unit intends to file in the US.

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The company cautioned that if it doesn’t succeed in the lawsuit, or is unable to recover the full US$6 million, there could be an impact on its financial performance.

Singapore Post slid 1 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.52, capping an erratic trading week that began with a high-profile weekend firing of three senior executives including group chief executive Vincent Phang. Its share price dived almost 11 per cent on Monday, but rebounded throughout the week. Shares of the national postal service provider are now 7.1 per cent lower than last Friday’s close.