Singapore stocks end lower on Monday; STI down 0.3%

SINGAPORE stocks ended lower on Monday (May 8) amid mixed trading in the region. The Straits Times Index (STI) lost 0.3 per cent or 8.97 points to 3,257.66. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 290 to 249, after 1.2 billion securities worth S$922.2 million changed hands. The decline occurred despite last Friday’s gains on Wall Street.

Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, noted that US equities had ended stronger on Friday after four days of decline. But anxiety over US default is at an all-time high, even as US stocks remained relatively resilient to debt-ceiling fears in other parts of the market, he said.

Regional markets experienced mixed trading. The Hang Seng Index was up 1.2 per cent, the Kospi Composite Index gained 0.5 per cent, and the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index grew 0.2 per cent. Meanwhile, the Nikkei 225 index slid 0.7 per cent.

The trio of local banks ended mixed on Monday. DBS rose 0.2 per cent to S$31.95, UOB gained 1.5 per cent to S$28.41, while OCBC declined 3.2 per cent to S$12.25.

The top gainer on the STI was Jardine Matheson Holdings, rising 1.7 per cent to close at US$50.18.

Meanwhile, Venture Corp led the declines on the STI, falling 6.5 per cent to S$15.95. The technology company last week reported a year-on-year decline in its profit for the first fiscal quarter of 2023.

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Singapore stocks open higher on Monday; STI up 0.2%

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Across the broader market, Seatrium was the top-traded counter by volume on Monday, with 293.7 million shares worth S$38.4 million changing hands. The counter closed 0.8 per cent lower at S$0.129.

The group also announced last week that it had secured a contract worth more than S$500 million to develop platforms for two offshore wind farms located off the coast of Long Island in the US.