Singapore stocks rebound, tracking rise in Asia markets; STI up 0.2%
Navene Elangovan
SINGAPORE shares ended higher on Thursday (Nov 9), along with most other markets in the region.
The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) gained 0.2 per cent or 5.6 points to close at 3,135.32.
Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 313 to 237, after 1.3 billion securities worth S$945.6 million were traded.
The biggest gainer on the STI was property investment company Hongkong Land , which rose 1.8 per cent or US$0.06 to US$3.32.
Other constituents that climbed include Singtel , which gained 1.7 per cent or S$0.04 to S$2.40. This came after it posted an 82.6 per cent rise in net profit for the first half of 2023.
The top decliner was Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust , which dropped 3.7 per cent or S$0.04 to S$1.05.
Shares of Seatrium were the most actively traded by volume, with 277.9 million shares worth S$30.3 million changing hands.
Regional markets ended mostly positive on Thursday, tracking Wall Street ahead of speeches by Federal Reserve officials.
The Nikkei 225 was up 1.5 per cent along with ASX 200, which gained 0.3 per cent. The Kospi also edged up 0.2 per cent, while the Shanghai Stock Exchange ended flat. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index bucked the trend, slipping 0.3 per cent.
In the US, both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were up, though the Dow edged slightly lower.
Yeap Jun Rong, market analyst at IG, said that Wall Street did not get many clues on monetary policy outlook from Fed chair Jerome Powell’s latest speech on Wednesday.
While Powell had said economists should be more flexible on their forecast methods, his words fell short of a direct guidance of growth risks for the US economy, said Yeap.
Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, said markets have remained “relatively tranquil”.
“It appears that investors may have anticipated a more substantial pushback from the Fed against the decline in US rates,” he said.
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