Singapore shares track Wall Street losses to close 0.4% lower

SINGAPORE shares fell on Tuesday (Jan 31), tracking losses on Wall Street. The Straits Times Index (STI) slid 0.4 per cent or 12.62 points to end at 3,365.67.

Losers outnumbered gainers 297 to 241, after 1.3 billion securities worth S$1.2 billion changed hands.

Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, noted that a possible higher-for-longer Fed funds rate regime may have put pressure on markets.

He said: “With peak-inflation euphoria ebbing, US data surprisingly sliding negative of late, and the Fed potentially pushing back on the loosening of financial conditions, the US and the rest of the world’s equity markets have run out of puff today.”

Despite positive developments in recent months – including China’s reopening, reduced recession risks in Europe, and improving inflation in the US – recession risks in the US will likely remain a major worry, and may pose the most significant risk to the global cyclical picture, Innes said.

Elsewhere in the region, markets were largely in the red. The Hang Seng Index fell 1 per cent, the Nikkei 225 Index slid 0.4 per cent, the Kospi Composite Index was down 1 per cent, and the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Index closed 0.9 per cent lower.

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In Singapore, the top gainer on the STI was Yangzijiang Shipbuilding : BS6 0%, gaining 4 per cent to close at S$1.29.

Meanwhile, the top loser on the index was Emperador : EMI 0%. It fell 2 per cent to close at S$0.49.

The trio of banks ended mixed on Tuesday. DBS gained 0.3 per cent to S$35.79. Meanwhile, UOB fell 0.8 per cent to S$29.83, and OCBC lost 0.5 per cent to S$12.93.