STI climbs amid positive news, tracking gains on Wall Street

SINGAPORE shares rose on Monday amid announcements cheered by investors over the weekend, despite a more cloudy regional outlook as the region continued to see declines.

The Straits Times Index ended up 1.3 per cent or 38.54 points at 3,089.65.

UOB Kay Hian analyst Adrian Loh said that welcome news of a potentially viable antiviral drug against Covid-19 from Merck, as well as favourable news from both Singtel and ST Engineering could have contributed to positive sentiment this morning.

Head of OCBC Investment Research Carmen Lee said that the market's climb could also be attributed to gains on Wall Street which saw the S&P 500 rise by 1.1 per cent last Friday.

Pharmaceutical giant Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics announced that the clinical trial of their oral antiviral drug showed about a 50 per cent reduction in the risk of Covid-19-related deaths and hospitalisations.

Meanwhile, Singtel shares climbed S$0.03 or 1.2 per cent to S$2.46, while ST Engineering closed up S$0.10 or 2.7 per cent at S$3.88 on Monday.

Singtel had announced last Friday that it had sold its Australian tower assets for A$1.9 billion (S$1.88 billion), while ST Engineering announced on Sunday the purchase of two US transport solutions firms, TransCore Partners and TLP Holdings for US$2.68 billion.

While the local market tracked US gains, Singapore Exchange market strategist Geoff Howie said that regional markets were weighed down by their own domestic factors.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 closed down 1.1 per cent or 326.18 points to 28,444.89, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index declined 2.2 per cent or 539.27 points to 24,036.37 and Seoul's Kospi lost 49.64 points or 1.6 per cent to close at 3019.18. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index lost 0.13 per cent or 2.01 points to close at 1522.47, while the Jakarta Composite Index rose 1.83 per cent or 113.84 points to close at 6342.69.

Across the Singapore market, advancers outpaced decliners 248 to 238. Some 1.47 billion shares worth S$1.18 billion changed hands.

Genting Singapore was the top gainer on the STI, climbing 2.8 per cent or S$0.02 to close at S$0.73.

At the bottom of the table was Keppel DC Reit, whose units declined by 1.2 per cent or S$0.03 to close at S$2.42.