Singapore stocks rise on Thursday following Fed rate hike; STI up 0.2%

SINGAPORE stocks inched higher on Thursday (May 4), following the US Federal Reserve’s decision to hike rates by another 25 basis points.

The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.2 per cent or 7.17 points to 3,269.18, tracking the performance in regional markets, which mostly ended flat or higher.

The Shanghai Composite Index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.8 per cent and 1.3 per cent, respectively. Meanwhile, Australia’s ASX 200 and South Korea’s Kospi ended the day little changed. (*See amendment note)

The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday hiked interest rates by an expected 25 basis points, but also signalled that a pause may be imminent. However, major US indices slipped lower overnight as comments by Fed chair Jerome Powell dimmed investors’ hopes of an imminent rate cut.

Oanda senior market analyst Kelvin Wong noted that there were robust performances on Asian indices despite the overnight decline on Wall Street.

“The broad-based US dollar weakness led to a drop in the USD/CNH (offshore yuan)... which implied a lower cost of funding on US dollar-denominated corporation debts in Asia,” he said.

On the local bourse, Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust led the index gainers, climbing 2.3 per cent to close at S$1.36. Other real estate investment trusts (Reits) including Mapletree Logistics Trust , CapitaLand Ascendas Reit and Keppel DC Reit were also among the gainers, rising between 0.9 per cent and 1.2 per cent.

Meanwhile, shares of Jardine Matheson ended at the bottom of the index performance table after slipping 1 per cent to US$48.64.

Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered decliners 290 to 272 after 1.2 billion securities worth S$890.5 million were traded.

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Watch-listed SMI Vantage was among the most actively traded counters by volume. It rose 15.9 per cent to close at S$0.05 after 33.7 million shares worth S$1.8 million changed hands.

*Amendment note: An earlier version indicated that Malaysia’s KLCI ended Thursday little changed. The KLCI closed unchanged on Wednesday and was closed on Thursday. The article has been updated for accuracy.