Singapore shares fall for third straight day; STI down 0.8%

SINGAPORE shares fell for the third consecutive day on Thursday (Jan 4), tracking a broader decline across the region.

The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) fell 0.8 per cent or 25.43 points to close at 3,174.01.

CapitaLand Investment was the top STI decliner, slipping 2.3 per cent to S$3.00. The local banks also closed in the red, with UOB , DBS and OCBC falling between 0.5 and 0.6 per cent.

Just four index counters ended the day in the black, including Wilmar International , Hongkong Land and Genting Singapore , which rose between 0.3 and 0.5 per cent. Yangzijiang Shipbuilding was the top gainer for the day, climbing 0.7 per cent to close at S$1.51.

DBS analysts Yeo Kee Yan and Foo Fang Boon said in a note on Thursday that earnings growth forecast for the STI this year would be affected by a flat growth forecast for banks, which offsets recovery for technology, consumer staples and several industrial counters.

“Our end-2024 target for the STI is 3,485, conservatively pegged between 10.8 times and 11.5 times (price-to-earnings ratio forecasts for FY25),” they said. The analysts also see limited downside for the index, given an attractive 5.4 per cent FY24 forecast yield and multi-year low valuations.

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Across the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers 308 to 247 on Thursday, after 1.1 billion securities worth S$872.7 million were traded.

Seatrium was the most active counter by volume, with some 249.8 million shares worth S$28.4 million changing hands. The counter fell 1.7 per cent, after announcing the cancellation of a S$250 million wind farm contract.

Elsewhere in Asia, stocks mostly closed lower following overnight losses on Wall Street. Key indices in Australia, Japan, South Korea and Shanghai fell between 0.4 and 0.8 per cent on Thursday.