STI falls 0.12% to cap a choppy week

SINGAPORE shares closed lower with the key Straits Times Index falling 3.26 points or 0.12 per cent to wrap up a choppy week at 2,821.70 on Friday.

Week-on-week, the STI fell 18.19 points or 0.64 per cent, swinging between gains and losses as good and bad news took turns to dominate.

While vaccine cheer and on-again hopes for a US stimulus - this, nevertheless remains elusive - kept traders hopeful, Brexit uncertainty and rising geopolitical risks from the US-China rift had dampened the trading mood.

Weak jobs data out of the US late Thursday, despite better than expected European data, also weighed on investor sentiment. The European Central Bank did not surprise with an extension of its bond purchase programme.

Elsewhere, regional bourses put up a mixed showing with key indices in Japan, China and Australia posting losses while Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Malaysia logged gains.

In Singapore, some 1.69 billion shares worth S$1.32 billion changed hands. OCBC, Singtel and Keppel led the losses in the local bourse.

Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust (Ascendas Reit) gained five Singapore cents or 1.74 per cent to S$2.93. Ascendas Reit said on Friday morning that it plans to acquire a suburban office property in Sydney, Australia for A$288.9 million (S$284 million), which will mark its fifth such property investment Down Under.

Olam International added two Singapore cents or 1.34 per cent to S$1.51. The food and agri-business giant announced the issuance of seven billion yen (S$89.8 million) of five-year sustainability-linked notes. The senior notes were issued to the Development Bank of Japan via a private placement under Olam's US$5 billion euro medium-term note programme.