STI rises 0.5% on Friday, bucking regional losses

THE Straits Times Index (STI) pulled out from underwater territory on Friday (Feb 17) to eke out gains, bucking losses across regional bourses, which took their cue from Wall Street’s overnight falls.

The index edged higher by 17.14 points or 0.5 per cent, to cap the week at 3,328.37. It fell just over 32 points or 1 per cent in an eventful week led by domestic happenings. These included Budget 2023, economic data for the fourth quarter of 2022, as well as January trade data. On the wider bourse, some 1.5 billion units worth S$1.1 billion changed hands; losers outnumbered gainers 278 to 260.

Key gauges across the region, in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan logged losses to end a choppy trading week.

In equity markets, investors’ attention returned to rate-hike woes as data showed US producer prices rebounded in January, indicating more price pressures. This overshadowed the earlier euphoria over strong consumer spending in the US. Traders were further spooked by remarks from two Federal Reserve officials that they were considering interest-rate hikes of 50 basis points.

Referring to the latest figures, ACY Securities chief economist Clifford Bennett said in a report: “As we have been warning for some time, the existing extreme price pressures – with more to come down the pipeline in services and shelter – leave no room whatsoever for resurgent petrol prices. Global oil prices are volatile, but have been clearly trending higher. It was only a matter of short delay before this fresh tide of inflation flowed in over the top of an already-swollen sea of inflation... this rise in petrol prices will have a ‘triple crippling impact’ on the US economy.”   He added: “It was a mistake to reduce from 50 to 25-point increments so early in this fight against inflation. And this is what markets are completely failing to understand and factor in: that this is a ‘long fight’ against inflation.”

On the Singapore Exchange, Sembcorp Marine (Sembmarine) was Friday’s most actively traded counter by volume, with 323.6 million shares transacted. The counter fell S$0.005 or 3.7 per cent to S$0.131. On Thursday, Sembmarine’s shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of the merger with Keppel Corp’s offshore and marine unit.

ESR-Logos Reit came under selling pressure when it resumed trading on Friday. It had on Thursday halted trading pending an announcement that it had closed the books for a S$150 million private-placement exercise. The new units were priced at S$0.33, a discount of some 5.8 per cent to the volume-weighted average pric of S$0.3502 for all trades on Feb 15. ESR-Logos was the day’s second-most actively traded counter by volume, with 71.3 million units transacted; its shares slipped S$0.02 or 5.7 per cent to S$0.33.