DBS, ThaiBev shore up ST Index

AFTER gaining almost 10 per cent since the start of the year, it's perhaps natural to expect the Straits Times Index (STI) to undergo some sort of pullback or consolidation. Such was the case on Thursday when the index traded sideways for most of the day, though it did manage to close a net 8.21 points higher at 3,096.69.

Turnover remained elevated at 3.3 billion units worth S$1.37 billion and, excluding warrants, there were 274 rises versus 215 falls.

Banks have provided most of the fuel for the index's rise over the past year on the understanding that rising interest rates will be good for their bottomlines. So it was on Thursday that DBS, despite reporting a 9 per cent fall in Q4 profit to S$913 million versus consensus of S$1.014 billion, still managed a S$0.31 rise to S$18.54 on volume of eight million shares, albeit on a cum-dividend basis. This added six points to the STI with a further two points coming from Thai Beverage's S$0.02 rise to S$0.96 with 46 million shares traded.